Decolonising Trafficking and Modern Slavery Writing Workshop

This British Academy funded writing workshop started from the observation that the mainstream literature on human trafficking, worst forms of child labour, illegal markets and other phenomena described as ‘modern slavery’ in the Global South often employs concepts and theoretical assumptions that do not reflect lived realities of the Global South. There are now calls to address this problem by attending to Global South scholars’ work on these topics, also to foster communication between South and South, as well as North and South scholars. This project brought together 10 early career scholars (6 from Ghana, 3 from Brazil, also 1 from India) and 7 senior scholars from Ghana, Brazil, South Africa, and the UK, including journal editors and members of journal editorial boards (the conveners, also Srila Roy, University of Witwatersrand, South Africa, and Alf Gunvald Nilsen, University of Pretoria, South Africa).

Early career researchers (ECRs) wishing to participate were asked to submit abstracts for a paper, and senior scholars commented on these abstracts to support development of a 5,000 word draft of an article that was submitted prior to the workshop itself. These draft documents became the focal point for the academic writing skills activities at a three-day writing residential held in Cape Coast, Ghana from 15 – 18 September 2021.