idw – Informationsdienst Wissenschaft
Nachrichten, Termine, Experten
Nachrichten, Termine, Experten
Slavery existed in antiquity and it still exists today. A new book, edited by three scholars at the University of Würzburg, examines historical and current forms of this deplorable institution.
Up to the middle of the 19th century, slavery was socially accepted in many parts of the world. Today it is, in principle, outlawed worldwide: The Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court (2002) lists slavery as a crime against humanity.
Nevertheless, slavery is still present in many countries - many people continue to be treated as “mere goods without rights": child slaves toil on West African cocoa plantations, but similar practices also exist in Germany, where migrant harvest workers from Eastern Europe often work under slave-like conditions.
These are just two recent examples from the new book Slavery as a Global and Regional Phenomenon. Scholars from Germany, Mexico, Nigeria and the US consider both the history of slavery and seek to elicit its underlying universal forms. The authors look at regional historical manifestations of slavery in the Caribbean and in Latin America, as well as at contemporary phenomena.
One chapter was written by a Nobel Prize laureate
The anthology presents the contributions of the international conference of the same name, which took place at the University of Würzburg in June 2013. The event was organized as part of the interdisciplinary project "Global Systems and intercultural competence" (GSiK) and supported by the Law Alumni Association, Würzburg.
The keynote speaker was the Nigerian Nobel laureate in literature Wole Soyinka. His lecture "The Dignity of the Slave" has been published as the first chapter in the anthology.
The book was edited by Eric Hilgendorf and Jan-Christoph Marschelke of the Department of Law, together with Karin Sekora, literary scholar at the Africa Center of the Universität Würzburg. They have also each contributed a chapter to the volume.
Eric Hilgendorf, Jan-Christoph Marschelke, Karin Sekora (eds.), Slavery as a Global and Regional Phenomenon, Universitätsverlag Winter, Heidelberg 2015, 176 pages, 32 Euros, ISBN 978-3-8253-6393-2
Criteria of this press release:
Journalists, all interested persons
Cultural sciences, History / archaeology, Law, Politics, Social studies
transregional, national
Scientific Publications
English
You can combine search terms with and, or and/or not, e.g. Philo not logy.
You can use brackets to separate combinations from each other, e.g. (Philo not logy) or (Psycho and logy).
Coherent groups of words will be located as complete phrases if you put them into quotation marks, e.g. “Federal Republic of Germany”.
You can also use the advanced search without entering search terms. It will then follow the criteria you have selected (e.g. country or subject area).
If you have not selected any criteria in a given category, the entire category will be searched (e.g. all subject areas or all countries).
