I am both delighted and honoured to become the next Director of the Wilberforce Institute. I intend to build on the legacy of Professor Trevor Burnard by increasing the size, scope and critical engagement of the Institute with historical and contemporary forms of enslavement.
As a criminologist and victimologist at the University of Hull I have been working closely with the Institute since 2016. I bring with me significant experience of leadership in research and innovation, research excellence, international collaboration, multi-agency partnership and project management. I like to operate as part of a team and value proactive, ambitious, and supportive working environments. I am committed to research that empowers and protects vulnerable and marginalised groups from exploitation, violence and abuse.
I am keen to maintain and build on the external partnerships that the Institute is renowned for. This is how real change is achieved – researchers working collaboratively with practitioners, policymakers, community groups and people with lived experience to improve how we understand and respond to exploitation and injustice.
I am equally committed to academic excellence and am excited to explore how the Institute will help shape future debate by providing new perspectives and insights on existing knowledge and practice. I will work tirelessly to draw new disciplinary insights into the Institute and look forward to working with many new colleagues across the University and around the world.
Having spent this weekend at the Freedom Festival, undertaking a pilot research project with the Festival organisers, artists and audiences, I feel an enormous sense of hope for the future. As one person at the festival rather eloquently explained to me, what happens at the festival is a ‘type of alchemy – where we transform difficult social issues into beautiful art, human dignity and civic solidarity’. I am fully committed to this type of alchemy and the Wilberforce Institute will continue to play its part in the civic life of the region.
As the new Director, I can promise you three things. One, we will take nothing for granted. We will challenge our own – and other people’s – thinking and assumptions. Two, we will continue to team up and collaborate with any organisation committed to addressing historical or contemporary forms of slavery, exploitation or injustice. Three, the Institute is part of both the city of Hull and a global community, and we shall engage with, and contribute to, both.
With best wishes
Professor Simon Green
Director, Wilberforce Institute