When is a child a slave? An interdisciplinary colloquium on October 18, 2013 at UCONN

Though humans have enslaved one another for millennia, there are more people enslaved today than at any other point in history. Most tragic is the enslavement of innocent children though human and labor trafficking. Join the University of Connecticut for When is a child a slave? Children’s Labor And Children’s Rights, 1760-2014, an interdisciplinary colloquium on Friday, October 18th, 2013 from 11am-4:30pm. For more information, see the flier and schedule of speakers below or contact Anna Mae Duane at amduane1@gmail.com.

This colloquium, and the publication that will emerge from it, argues that children occupy a critical lacuna in discussions of slavery coerced labor and trafficking, whether our focus is on the nineteenth century or the twenty-first. Until we acknowledge largely undertheorized assumptions about the recipient of human rights (often idealized as a rights-bearing, autonomous adult) we cannot address the economic and social forces that expose children to coerced labor and slave-like conditions. Thus we argue that childhood studies can expose gaps in how we think about, study and teach the history of coerced labor. As we critique and discard outmoded and inaccurate ideas innocent cherubs and heroic rescues, we are in a position to more effectively advocate for solutions that  address the needs of affected individuals and their families.