Legacies of Enslavement and contemporary violence in Liberia and Haiti

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 structures, and social inequalities in Liberia and Haiti. 

Taking a transatlantic perspective, the discussion moves beyond national case studies to consider shared historical continuities and global structures of power.

Key themes

• The role of memory, fieldwork, and scholarship in amplifying marginalised voices
• Academic freedom, silence, and self-censorship in knowledge production
• The importance of solidarity and a “politics of love” in research, teaching, and social transformation
• The challenge of imagining alternative futures in contexts shaped by ongoing violence

Listen to the full conversation

Speaker biographies

Professor Louis Herns Marcelin, Ph.D., is a Haitian social sciences professor and senior researcher at the University of Miami, and Chancellor of the Interuniversity Institute for Research and Development (INURED) in Haiti. He founded the Global Health and Society program and has led extensive research across the Caribbean, the United States, and Brazil, supported by major international funders. His work focuses on marginalisation, health disparities, violence, kinship, and migration. He is currently a Leverhulme Visiting Professor at the University of Cambridge (June 2025–July 2027), researching the contemporary legacies of plantation-based violence in the Americas.

Dr Ola Osman is Assistant Professor of African Politics at the University of Cambridge, a Fellow of Trinity Hall, and a senior gender consultant with the UN World Food Programme. She sits on the Advisory Board for the Collective Healing Initiative (UNESCO Routes of Enslaved Peoples Project). Her interdisciplinary research reframes so‑called “ethnic” conflicts in Africa through the lens of Atlantic slavery, with current work focusing on social inclusion, conflict, climate change, and food security in Ethiopia’s Afar Region.