Wilberforce Institute

🎨Explore the Theresa Roberts Art Collection & its new home at the Wilberforce Institute in this webinar on art, culture & collaboration.

🗣️ Featuring Theresa Roberts, Dr Emma Roberts, Prof Rina Arya & Dr Cassandra Gooptar

📅 Monday 14th July 2025 | 🕒 3pm - 4:30pm
🔗 Book now: bit.ly/43NSqQd

We are delighted to welcome Professor Angela McCarthy, Director of the Centre for Global Migrations at the University of Otago and an Honorary Researcher of the Institute.

Angela is visiting from New Zealand as part of her research into Scottish involvement in slavery in the Caribbean.

Indonesian children say climate change puts them at risk of exploitation.

On World Day Against Child Labour, Dr Saphia Fleury from the Wilberforce Institute highlights the critical links between climate change and child exploitation in Indonesia.

Read Saphia's blog here: bit.ly/45R9RR9

Low conviction rates under the Modern Slavery Act raise urgent questions—what’s stopping prosecutions, and what can businesses do?
Join Dr Alicia Heys on Friday, 6th June, at 2 pm for this online session on legal and institutional barriers to justice.
Book here: www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/barriers-t...

Dr Alicia Heys was at the Ministry of Justice today for the Modern Slavery Scrutiny Panel, helping scrutinise CPS responses to modern slavery cases.

Despite rising victim numbers, convictions under the Modern Slavery Act remain low. Join Dr Alicia Heys to explore the barriers to justice—and what they mean for business.
👉 Book now: www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/barriers-t...

Prosecutions Under ‘World Leading’ U.K. Modern Slavery Act Remain Low Ten years on from the historic Modern Slavery Act coming into power, slavery and lavor exploitation remains rife across the British economy.

Proud to see Alicia’s report on barriers to prosecutions under the Modern Slavery Act featured in Forbes:
🔗 bit.ly/3GV5kmq
The article shares insights from interviews with legal experts on why conviction rates stay low despite strong UK laws.

Staff from the institute joined members of the Wilberforce House Museum Advisory Board, heritage colleagues, and members of the public last evening for the Hull launch of 'Mariners- Race, Religion and Empire in British Ports'. Hosted by our friends at the Hull History Centre until 26 June 2025.

Despite thousands of victims identified, convictions remain low. Dr Alicia Heys' new report explores why—and what must change.

🗞️ Guardian: bit.ly/3WwYpXq
📄 Report: bit.ly/3wEv7gA

Great to see Dr Alicia Heys's new report on the barriers to successful prosecutions under the Modern Slavery Act, published by the Modern Slavery and Human Rights Policy and Evidence Centre today. Also, find details of her lunchtime seminar next week.

Tomorrow we'll publish a report on the reasons for low prosecution rates since the Modern Slavery Act.

Dr Alicia Heys from @wilberforcehull.bsky.social will talk about her research in our lunchtime seminar next Wednesday 14 May, 12.30pm UK time.

Register👇
www.modernslaverypec.org/latest/lunch...

Thanks to Janet Alder and Dan Glazebrook for a truly thought provoking Stephen Lawrence Day lecture at the University of Hull yesterday. Learn more from their book: 'DEFIANCE – Speak up for Christopher Alder' www.dialoguebooks.co.uk/titles/janet....

Searching for examples of sustainable travel policies at universities across Europe. If you are based in Europe, please send me your university’s staff travel policy!
@eeiathull.bsky.social
@wilberforcehull.bsky.social

We were delighted to welcome Ayrton Sarbeng yesterday. He came to see how his uncle, former President John Kufuor, is celebrated for officially opening our institute in 2006. Ayrton is presently studying for a degree in Marketing Management and Business Strategy at the University of Hull. 🇬🇭

We were delighted to welcome Professor Zoe Trodd, Director of the Rights Lab, University of Nottingham back to the Wilberforce Institute this week. Many fruitful ideas about research projects were identified and Professor Trodd gave us the benefit of her leadership experience and insights.

Last week, the Centre for Violence, Victimisation and Vulnerability hosted a networking event with 20 researchers & practitioners from across Europe—sharing insights, tackling key issues & building future plans.
Find out more about the Centre👉 www.hull.ac.uk/work-with-us...

🗓️Don’t miss Dr Michael Bennett’s lecture on the financing of Barbados’s 17th-c. sugar boom & links to the English Civil War. A deep dive into merchant investment, slavery, & transatlantic ties. #HistoryLecture #Barbados #SlaveryAndCapitalism
www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/london-mer...

Secrets of Success: the church that served a plantation remains a monument of resistance Amid the site in rural Jamaica that once belonged to a Guardian financier may lie a treasure trove of artefacts that tell the story of Britain’s history of colonisation and enslavement

Success Village, Hanover, Jamaica—key to our Guardian Legacies of Enslavement project—is featured in The Guardian this week. Dr Cassandra Gooptar shares insights on how archaeology connects past to present. #WilberforceInstitute #LegaciesOfEnslavement
www.theguardian.com/world/2025/a...

Congrats, Dr. Bethany Darby!
She defended her thesis on children’s perceptions of criminal exploitation & county lines. Part of the Better Policing, Safer Communities cluster & Wilberforce Institute, she is a Postdoc on the GRIP Hotspot Policing project. Thanks to her examiners, chair & supervisors!

Join Sophie Blanchard, Ops Manager at the Wilberforce Institute & Project Manager for the Violence Prevention Partnership, for a Wilberforce Business Academy session on the National Referral Mechanism (NRM) & its role in supporting UK victims of modern slavery.

www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/the-nation...

We were delighted to host a visit by members of the National Centre for Teaching Black History Educator's Steering Group at the International Slavery Museum yesterday. They heard about the work of the Wilberforce House Museum Advisory Board to make heritage more inclusive. #KnowledgeExchange

Today, Cristina Talens, our Director of Risk Assessment and founder of www.hull.ac.uk/research/ins... is presenting at the Disrupting Modern Slavery Conference talking about how risk assessments can be used to get to the root of problems on labour exploitation with focus on UK supply chains.

DEFIANCE - Speak up for Christopher Alder For this annual Stephen Lawrence Day lecture, we welcome Janet Alder, sister of Christopher Alder, who died in police custody in 1998.

Book today: DEFIANCE – Speak up for Christopher Alder

➡️ Janet Alder in Conversation with Dan Glazebrook

➡️ Tuesday 22 April 2025 – 1 - 2.30 pm

➡️ Brynmor Jones Library, University of Hull.

➡️ Find out more and book: www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/defiance-s...

We are delighted to announce that the winner of the 2025 Subedi Essay Prize is Richa Shrestha for her outstanding essay, 'Chains of Modern Slavery: Exploring International Trafficking Networks and Foreign Fighters in the Russia-Ukraine War'. Discover more: www.hull.ac.uk/research/ins...

Professor Simon Green is currently a visiting scholar at Oñati International Institute for the Sociology of Law (lnkd.in/eBT45xJx), co-editing a special edition focusing on the intersection of exploitation, victim rights & victimological values & co-authoring an article on Victim Survival Skills.

Dr Daniel Ogunniyi presented preliminary work on the relationship between 'Armed Conflict, Climate Change & Modern Slavery' at the International Studies Association Conference in Chicago with Marta Furlan from Free the Slaves freetheslaves.net & Professor Monti Datta from the University of Richmond.

I spoke at the @wilberforcehull.bsky.social Panel as part of their #InternationalWomensDay celebrations.

The theme for International Women’s Day this year is #AccelerateAction and the panel talked about being a woman in Hull.

We were delighted to host a panel discussion yesterday on what it's like to be a woman in Hull. Organised by Honorary Fellow Karen Okra, our distinguished panelists included Dame Diana Johnson, Dr Jen Nghishitende, and Cecile Oxall. ##IWD2025 #Hull

International Women’s Day is a global movement recognising women’s rights as human rights, rooted in a rich history of resistance. In this blog, www.hull.ac.uk/research/ins... Dr Ndiweteko Jennifer Nghishitende recognises that women who are making a difference all around us.

Join Cristina Talens, an expert in ethical trading, sustainability, and supply chains, to learn about the implications of EU Modern Slavery legislation in this free, 45-minute online session.
▶️ 07 March 2025
▶️ 2:00 PM - 2:45 PM GMT
▶️ Online on Zoom
▶️ Book now www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/eu-legisla...