News

The Legacies of Enslavement Special Initiative is pleased to announce the recipients of its first round of Small Grants funding. The scheme supports events, projects and other outputs that contribute to the Initiative's aims of advancing research, fostering engagement, and developing new ways of understanding and addressing the legacies and afterli…

The Legacies of Enslavement Special Initiative congratulates The Fitzwilliam Museum at the University of Cambridge on being named one of five finalists for the Art Fund Museum of the Year 2026.  The award is the world’s largest museum prize, recognising inspiring projects and activity from museums across the UK. This year’s judges are considering m…

A new open-access publication explores the impact of grassroots art and activism on British art since the 1960s. Drawing on examples including the Caribbean Artists Movement and the Black Arts Group, it examines responses to racism, migration, and political change.

How Freedmen’s communal landholding practices resisted institutional racism and shaped maroon intellectual heritage and political autonomy  By Darold Cuba, PhD candidate in History. This post is part of Exploring Legacies of Enslavement: a research series, highlighting ongoing research on the legacies of enslavement. 

This round‑table, part of the Legacies of Enslavement seminar series, brought together Prof Louis Herns Marcelin (University of Miami and Interuniversity Institute for Research and Development, INURED) and Dr Ola Osman (University of Cambridge) to explore how the legacies of enslavement and colonialism continue to shape present‑day violence, power …

A collaborative digitisation project is helping reconnect the Igbo-Ukwu community in Nigeria with artefacts excavated from the area and now held in museum collections. Read more about the Igbo-Ukwu digitisation project on the Department of Archaeology Website.

A global conversation on the legacies of slaveryFrom June 24 to 26, 2026, the University of Cambridge will welcome leading scholars, museum professionals, heritage practitioners, and community partners from Haiti, the United States, Ghana, the Caribbean, and the United Kingdom for a landmark international workshop entitled Mapping the Legacies of S…

This seminar, part of the Legacies of Enslavement seminar series, featured Dr Mark Tumbridge (University of Guyana), who explored one of the earliest documentary accounts of Indian indentured migration to the Caribbean and the historical questions it raises. His central argument was that seemingly minor details in historical texts can open up much …

This event, part of the Legacies of Enslavement seminar series, featured Professor Jean Pfaelzer and examined the often-overlooked enslavement of California Native Americans, challenging not only the idea of the western states as ‘free’, but also that slavery in the United States ended with legal abolition.Through multiple histories, including that…

A film screening this June will shine a light on a remarkable and often overlooked chapter in Cambridge’s history, telling the story of the Cambridge West Indian Cricket Club (CWICC) and its lasting impact on the city.Saturday 20 June 2026, 5pmOrlene’s Kitchen Café, 11 Peas Hill, Cambridge (CB2 3PP)Free entry (capacity limited to 60 – early arrival…

Deadline: 30 JuneThe Legacies of Enslavement Special Initiative invites proposals for blog posts exploring the historical and contemporary legacies and afterlives of enslavement as part of its Exploring Legacies of Enslavement research series.Early Career Researchers at the University of Cambridge, including PhD students and postdoctoral researcher…

By, Dr. Tara Inniss, Department of History, Philosophy and Psychology, The University of the West Indies (UWI), Cave Hill Campus, Barbados and Visiting Scholar, McDonald Archaeological Research Institute and Jesus College.This post is part of Exploring Legacies of Enslavement: a research series, highlighting ongoing research on the legacies of ensl…

New research highlights how systemic racism and socioeconomic stress can affect pregnancy biology, helping explain persistent racial inequalities in health outcomes. Alongside this, the launch of the first UK textbook on anti‑racist healthcare sets out how racism shapes medical knowledge, training, and patient care, calling for structural reform ac…

By Molly Groarke PhD candidate in Modern British History. This post is part of Exploring Legacies of Enslavement: a research series, highlighting ongoing research on the legacies of enslavement. 

Two recent blogs from the Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology (MAA) Digital Lab explore critical and collaborative approaches to engaging with museum collections. Digging Deep in Mompox traces lives and global connections through research in Colombia, while Light as a feather, and just as fragile reflects on the care, movement, and vulnerability…