Child slaveries in the early modern world: Gender, trauma, and trafficking in transcultural perspective (1500-1800)

Overview

This collaborative project brings together researchers from the IHSS and the Bonn Center for Dependency & Slavery studies to generate valuable knowledge about children, slavery, and gender in the early modern world (1500-1800). It develops case studies grounded in archival research, visual and material culture that explore historical dimensions of child slavery in multiple world regions, including in maritime Asia, South America, and West Africa and the Atlantic. It pays particular attention to the mobility of enslaved and other ‘transactional’ children, including between households, across cultural boundaries, and across oceans. We aim to illuminate important changes in child slavery over time, including shifts in ideas about the enslavement of children, and real trends in child enslavement and trafficking. As the early modern era was a period of intensified globalisation and imperial expansion, this project assesses the extent to which it witnessed a convergence of child slavery ideas and practices across the globe.

Funding

• Australia-Germany Joint Research Cooperation Scheme – Deutscher Akademischer Austauschdienst (DAAD)/Universities Australia, $50,000

Duration

2023-2024

Research investigators

• Professor Susan Broomhall, Gender and Women’s History Research Centre, ACU
• Dr Kristie Flannery, ACU
• Dr Jessica O’Leary, Gender and Women’s History Research Centre, ACU

Research partners

• Professor Claudia Jarzebowski, Bonn Center for Dependency and Slavery Studies, Universität Bonn
• Ms Lisa Phongsavath – PhD candidate
• Mr Joseph Biggerstaff – PhD candidate

Call for papers

"Children, dependency, and emotions in the early modern world, 1500-1800: Archival and visual narratives" conference

Date: 12-14 September 2024

Location: Bonn Center for Dependency and Slavery Studies

Call for papers deadline: Friday 1 December 2023

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Events

Conference: "Children, dependency, and emotions in the early modern world, 1500-1800: Archival and visual narratives", 

12-14 September 2024, Bonn Center for Dependency and Slavery Studies

See Call for Papers, above.

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Public lecture: "Emotion and experience. Dependent children in early modern societies" - Professor Claudia Jarzebowski (University of Bonn, Germany)

Thursday 13 April 2023, 4-5pm AEST

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View video

News

New DAAD-UA Grant for German-Australian collaborative project - 17 November 2022

Arts and education researchers win prestigious international grants - 16 November 2022

Research Status

Active