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Between 2006 and 2010 Brian Kelly directed a major research project on US slave emancipation involving strategic collaborations with civil society, public discourse and non-HE curriculum design partners in the United States. Pursuing an expansive approach to broad dissemination on the web, in print and through a series of well-staged conferences and educators' workshops, this project has engaged hundreds of teachers, heritage and cultural workers, and curriculum experts in secondary education. Drawing these diverse constituencies into the collaborative production of high-quality, web-based teaching resources, project partners have played a leading role in reshaping history pedagogy on a critical topic as the US enters a long run of public commemorations marking the Civil War and its aftermath.
Universities UK named Bales' work as one of `100 Discoveries in UK Universities that have Changed the World.' Bales, they said, `brought about a new awareness, new laws and new programmes for the liberation and rehabilitation of slaves around the world.' That recognition noted his illumination of modern slavery. Since coming to Hull in 2007, Bales' research has focussed on analysing and challenging contemporary slavery, an impact seen in an expanding global anti-slavery movement, new laws, and new research approaches. It is work based largely on his work in three key areas: conceptual/empirical tools; policies and legislation; and corporate supply chain responsibility.
Allain's research on the legal definition of slavery has transformed the concept of slavery from being seen primarily as a historical phenomenon to being a tool of relevance in dealing with contemporary exploitive practices. As a result, courts, particularly the Australian Supreme Court (known as the High Court of Australia), have applied the law of slavery where previously they did not; and leading NGOs now use Allain's work as the basis of their understanding of slavery in their lobbying efforts, in mobilizing public opinion, and in providing direct services to affected people. Furthermore, Allain's research is the foundation upon which an initiative, which has raised in excess of $2 billion to address contemporary slavery, is based. This private/public funding initiative which is designed to `eradicate slavery in one generation' is utilising Allain's research as the baseline as to what constitutes contemporary slavery for its funding allocation for governments and NGOs in their anti-slavery work.
Two of the UOA's research outputs — the Slave Voyages website (2008) and the Atlas of the Transatlantic Slave Trade (2010) — not only transformed knowledge and understanding of the movements of enslaved Africans, but also generated a wealth of documentary, visual and statistical material relating to this human trafficking business, c.1500-1867. These research findings are disseminated through media as diverse as searchable webpages, educational packs, artistic exhibitions, TV features, newspaper reports and theatre performances. The far-reaching impact of the research benefits schoolchildren, policy-makers, theatre-goers, arts communities and the general public across the globe.
Research at UWE Bristol has transformed public awareness of Bristol's history and the impact of the Atlantic Slave trade in Britain, particularly in relation to the built environment, the evolution of racial attitudes and the continuing legacy of slavery. It raised consciousness about the connection between existing stately homes, public buildings and monuments and slavery generated wealth in Bristol, London and throughout Britain. It has stimulated and informed reinterpretations of English heritage and National trust properties and has been utilised in national website projects. Its findings also made explicit the link between Bristol's social and cultural institutions and slavery-generated wealth.
This research has also benefited the wider public by enabling the production of historically well informed teaching and tourist resources for Bristol. It has generated new museum exhibitions and informed the acquisitions policies of libraries and archives. It informed the content and interpretation, and acquisitions policies, of both national and local museum and stimulated the generation of websites, popular plays, artwork and literature.
Professor Catherine Hall and her team have instigated a high-profile public debate about British slave-ownership and its long-term influence on British society, economy, politics and culture. The team's research results have been shared with a wide audience through an intense programme of public engagement, including a number of exhibitions, and extensive media coverage in the UK and abroad, as well as indirectly through an acclaimed work of popular fiction. Above all, their research has been made publicly available via an online Encyclopaedia of British Slave-ownership which has encouraged non-academic users to pursue their own research and make active contributions to the project.
Three films by David Hickman identify and examine contemporary forms of modern slavery in Haiti, Pakistan and India, where the plight of the victims has gone unrecognised by governments and international agencies. The case for impact is made in relation to the international exposure of the films (broadcast by Al Jazeera in more than 100 countries), responses from the general public, their uptake among educators and students studying slavery and human rights and, most importantly, the impact on some of the victims of slavery who appear in the films, as well as for organisations that represent or campaign for them.
Research by Dr S. Karly Kehoe at the Scottish Catholic Archives and the Highland Archive Centre (HAC) led to the discovery of source materials relating to connections between Scottish Highlanders and plantation slavery. Extensive archival work supported an exhibition at the HAC and a resource pack which currently supports teachers delivering the 'Atlantic Slave Trade' topic in the National 4/5 Curriculum for Excellence (History). The pack supports the 'Mandatory Content & Illustrative Areas' section and covers the 4 core areas for study: the Triangular Trade; Britain and the Caribbean; the Captive's Experience and Slave Resistance; the Abolitionist Campaigns.
This case study concerns advances in public understanding of Wales's involvement with the Atlantic slave system between the seventeenth and nineteenth centuries associated with the research of Chris Evans. The research has enhanced cultural capital within Wales (and more widely) on this issue, expanded the range and quality of evidence available for public debate, and influenced the memorialisation of Atlantic slavery within Wales.
Rice's research in various aspects of slavery and the black Atlantic (1750-2010) has facilitated museums in the North West to use their internationally important collections to make innovative exhibitions; his research engages artists, performers, schoolchildren, community groups, civil servants and documentary filmmakers on both sides of the Atlantic. His work on Transatlantic black presences in the North was instrumental in the development of outputs that range from a commemorative public performance in Leeds (2009), through an exhibition catalogue in Manchester (2011), public debates with American broadcasters at the International Slavery Museum (2013) to lectures to Civil Servants (2012) about black presence beyond London.