Our Fellows will present their compelling research, covering different regions and time periods, but linked by the themes of (strong) asymmetrical dependencies and slavery.
"Five hundred years of Chinese migration overseas, from Southeast Asia to the Americas and the Caribbean, and currently, to Europe and Africa"
Why have so many Chinese left home in such large numbers since the Ming Dynasty (16th century) and continuing to the present moment, that is, the "push" factors of this outward migration. To what destinations have they settled and formed large communities, beginning with European Empires--Spanish, Dutch, British, French--followed by the American Empire and new nation-states around the world after decolonization, in other words, the "pull" factors. This global phenomenon is often named the "Chinese diaspora." Using an ancient Greek term meaning to scatter, "diaspora" means dispersal from one homeland to many destinations.
This lecture will sketch the outlines of this unparalleled history of global migration and resettlement, as the Chinese contribute to the formation of multicultural/multiracial societies in Asia, the Americas North, Central and South, Europe and Africa. It concludes with a discussion of the evolving positions of a changing China herself through time to this mass out-migration of her subjects.
"Recaptured Childhoods: Liberating children from the slave trade in the 19th century"
Between 1807 and 1900, naval forces intercepted and formally emancipated more than 250,000 people from the slave trade in the Atlantic and Indian Oceans. Most of these people were resettled in British-held colonies and forced work in plantation or domestic labour. This short lecture will follow the trajectory of the tens of thousands of African children, from babes in arms to teenagers, who were “freed” in the nineteenth century and became wards of the British Empire.
These wards became child labourers for Empire at the same time as Britain both introduced stricter controls on the use of child labour domestically, and introduced a scheme to despatch British children to the colonies as workers and vanguard settlers. Children played significant, though sometimes contradictory, roles in the extension of British rule in the nineteenth century. This lecture explores the role of freed African children in both the building of empire and in resistance to its imposition.
"Empress Pulcheria, Dependents, Bribery and the Politics of 5th-Century Constantinople"
Dependents of empresses appear on the pages of ancient histories rarely and often anonymously, but their role and significance within the political networks and dynamics of centres of imperial power did not escape the attention of major players of the time.
In my talk, I will present such a rare case – the documented dependents of Empress Pulcheria. I will discuss their significance in the political landscape of Constantinople and the imperial court, as well as their role in the theological conflict of the 430s. The point of focus will be possibly the largest and best recorded 'gift-giving' or – to be more direct – bribery campaign in the history of the later Roman Empire launched by the bishop of Alexandria Cyril to influence the imperial court. We will learn an answer to an important question: what favours would wool rugs, curtains, stool covers, and fifty pounds of gold earn you at the 5th-century imperial court?