Events

The project group hosts regular seminars, workshops and symposiums at the IISH and beyond. On this page, you can find information about upcoming events and how to sign up.

Upcoming events:

Seminar Series Micro-Global Histories of Slavery: Sources and Approaches

We warmly invite you to join our monthly seminar series Micro-Global Histories of Slavery: Sources and Approaches. Each session brings together scholars working on diverse regions and source materials to explore new methods and insights in the study of slavery. All seminars take place in a hybrid format (in person and online). If you would like to attend an upcoming seminar or be added to the mailing list, please email Sanne Muurling for details and updates.

We wish to draw your attention to the following seminars:

Our seminars and meetings are scheduled for the following dates:

  • 20 January 2026, 13:00 CET, Amsterdam (IISH) (+ Project Meeting, 10.30)
    River Baars (SOAS) – Sodomitical outlaws in the VOC colonial encounter
  • 10 March 2026, 13:00 CET, Amsterdam (IISH) (+ Project Meeting, 10.30)
    Kate Ekama (Stellenbosch University) – Family, freedom and remembering: The case of Clasina from Bengal
  • 7 April 2026, 15:00 CET, Amsterdam (IISH) (+ Project Meeting, 10.30)
  • 12 May 2026, 13:00 CET, Amsterdam (IISH) (+ Project Meeting, 10.30)
    Patricia Souza de Faria (Rural Federal University of Rio de Janeiro) – From the Indian Ocean to Portugal: Marriage and Social Networks of Enslaved and Freed Persons in Lisbon (16th–17th Centuries)
  • 2 June 2026, 15:00 CET, Amsterdam (IISH) (+ Project Meeting, 10.30)
    Nira Wickramasinghe (Leiden University) – Slave descent and the borders of race
  • 9 July 2026, 15:00 CET, Nijmegen (RU) (+ Project Meeting, 13.00)

About the Seminar Series Micro-Global Histories of Slavery: Sources and Approaches

A global turn in slavery studies urges us to bring together the study of histories of slavery from across the globe, from Asia to the Atlantic, from local regimes of slavery to the impact of colonial slave trade and slavery.

Linked to the combined research team of slavery projects at the International Institute of Social History (Amsterdam) and Radboud University (Nijmegen), this seminar aims to further critical reflections of sources and approaches for the study micro-global histories of slavery. We invite scholars to share insights, questions and ideas that are grounded in research practice and experiences with colonial and other or vernacular sources. Discussing sources, research practices and methodologies thus serves as a way to further develop the practice of micro-global histories of slavery.

The seminar series is organized by a coalition of research and data projects at the IISH and the RU (1. Voices of Resistance:  A Global Micro-Historical Approach to Enslavement across the Atlantic and Indian Ocean; 2. Resisting Enslavement: A Global Historical Approach to Slavery in the Dutch Atlantic and Asian Empire (1620-1815); 3. The Global Business of Slave Trade: Patterns, Actors and Gains in the Early Modern Dutch and Iberian Slave Trade and 4. Exploring Slave Trade in Asia).

Past project events

Workshop ESTA Launch of TIDES and new ESTA data + Slave Island Screening – 12 December 2025 – IISH Amsterdam

Workshop Navigating Worlds of Coerced Labour – 16-17 October 2025 – IISH Amsterdam

Workshop Colonial law, slavery and interactions – 19 September 2025 – IISH Amsterdam

Seminar Depok: A Story of (Im)material Heritage of Slavery – 22 July 2025 – IISH Amsterdam

Workshop Leadership Archetypes present in (affected) Community Projects– 30 May 2025 – Framer Framed Amsterdam

Workshop ESTA Network From slave trade to contract labour and shipping in Asia: Digital methods and collaboration– 9 May 2025 – BCDSS Bonn

Symposium Koloniaal archief, slavernijverleden en voorouderonderzoek – 11 April 2025 – IISH Amsterdam

Symposium Colonial archives and meaningful infrastructure – 24 January 2025 – Radboud University Nijmegen

International Workshop Iberian Sources for the study of Slave Trade, Slavery and Colonialism in Asia – 21-22 January 2025 – IISH Amsterdam

Kickoff (internal) Workshop, IISH Combined Slavery Projects (ERC, Vidi and Global Business) – 4 October 2024 – IISH Amsterdam

Past editions of the Seminar Series Micro-Global Histories of Slavery: Sources and Approaches

Miguel Rodrigues – Spiritual Salvation, Enslavement, and Creolization: The Formation of Colonial Societies in the West African Archipelagos of Cape Verde and São Tomé (16th–17th Centuries) – 2 December 2025

Aleksandra Modelina & Angelina Kalashnikova – Dependency, Bondage and Slavery in Northern Eurasia – 1 October 2025

Nathan Marvin – Race, Racialisation, and Enslavement in the Indian Ocean World – 3 September 2025

Wouter Raaijmakers – Living in an Empire of Laws: Between Legislation and Litigation in the Indian Ocean World – 2 July 2025

Claude Chevaleyre and Koen van der Lijn – Contracted into slavery? Coerced labour in early modern China – 14 May 2025

Meenu Mathai and Susan Thomas – (Un)Making the Aṭima in Malabar/Kerala: Sources from the Syrian Christian Church Grantavari – 2 April 2025

Timo McGregor – Navigating Court Records and Legal Pluralism in Colonial Contexts – 5 March 2025

Titas Chakraborty – Studying enslaved mobilities in Asia – 18 February 2025

Nicholas Sy and Philipp Huber – Digital humanities using Iberian colonial parish registers – 4 December 2024

Eva Lehner and Hanna te Velde – Reading Enslaved Family Lives in Colonial Sources – 6 November 2024