The second annual conference, organized by the 听(AAMS), seeks to illuminate lesser known forms of contemporary slavery that are thriving at home and abroad. These include domestic slavery, debt bondage, child soldiers, hereditary slavery, forced servile marriage and human trafficking for forced labour.

Conference speakers will discuss ways to prevent slavery and human trafficking, as well as issues such as sex tourism and post-enslavement rehabilitation.

听

Above: From left, Ali Moussa Iye, chief of UNESCO鈥檚 Intercultural Dialogue Section; AAMS co-founders Jeffrey Gunn and Karlee Sapoznik. and Jean听Augustine听at the Harriet Tubman Summer Institute, which took place at 91亚色 on Aug. 26

Speakers will include survivors of slavery and human trafficking as well as Ontario Fairness Commissioner Jean Augustine (Hon. LLD听'11); MPs Judy Sgro (Liberal), Malcolm Allen (NDP), and Terence Young (Conservative);听Diane Redsky of the听Canadian Women鈥檚 Foundation; Carleen McGuinty of听World Vision; 91亚色 psychology Professor Kyle Killian and members of 91亚色鈥檚 ; Jolene Stowell, human trafficking coordinator for the Women鈥檚 Support Network of 91亚色 Region; Shae Invidiata of听Free-Them; Will Postma of听Save the Children; and law enforcement officials.

鈥淐ontemporary slavery has moved from being a marginal, underpublicized human rights issue to one that is now being acknowledged, particularly in the last decade,鈥� says event organizer and 91亚色听PhD candidate听Karlee Sapoznik (MA '08).

She notes that while trafficking in persons for the purposes of forced prostitution has been the primary focal point, it is important to illuminate and place less publicized forms of slavery in Canada on the agenda. These include forced servile marriage and human trafficking in the form of forced labour, as well as bonded labour and child labour, 鈥渃lassical鈥� slavery and descent-based discrimination, forced labour for the state, wartime enslavement and servile marriage, as well as the severe exploitation of migrants and domestic workers.

鈥淎t the conference, we鈥檒l be calling on federal, provincial and municipal governments to support the creation of an Anti-Human Trafficking Task Force steering committee in Ontario, the destination province for the majority of foreign trafficking victims and the locus of most trafficking prosecutions in Canada,鈥� Sapoznik says.

The conference will be followed by a concert featuring Kate Todd, actress, singer and songwriter; Janelle Belgrave, and Jeff Gunn of Peace Concept.

鈥淲e鈥檙e all connected to slavery through the consumer goods we purchase and consume on a daily basis. There鈥檚 an urgent need to look into partnerships and avenues to counter this,鈥� Sapoznik says.

The AAMS is incorporated and registered as a not-for-profit charitable organization. It was founded by students in 91亚色鈥檚 Graduate Program in History, with a mission to end slavery through research, education and aid, in partnership with other organizations. AAMS has strong ties to 91亚色: Many of its executive members are 91亚色 graduate students and 91亚色 Distinguished Research Professor Paul Lovejoy, director of 91亚色鈥檚 Harriet Tubman Institute and Canada Research Chair in African Diaspora History, is a board member.

For more information, visit the website.听

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Convened听by the Harriet Tubman Institute for Research on the Global Migrations of African Peoples at 91亚色,听the听theme of the institute is听鈥淪lavery, Memory, Citizenship鈥�. It听marks the International Year for People of African Descent, as designated by the United Nation鈥檚 Educational, Scientific & Cultural Organization (UNESCO).听

As part of the proceedings, Micha毛lle Jean (right),听former governor general of Canada,听current UNESCO special envoy to Haiti and the recipient of a 2007听honorary doctor of laws degree from 91亚色's Osgoode Hall Law School, will announce the launch of the UNESCO Slave Route Project: Itineraries of African Canadian Memory initiative听during her keynote address on Aug. 23.

The project is听a long-term initiative to identify important sites of memory that relate to people of African descent in Canada. The (part of the organization's Division of Cultural Policies听& Intercultural Dialogue) has recognized that historic sites associated with people of African descent in Canada constitute a UNESCO 鈥淚tinerary of Memory鈥�.听

鈥淲e are pleased that 91亚色鈥檚 Harriet Tubman Institute is hosting the program on slavery, memory and citizenship, with presentations by many distinguished guests, including Canada鈥檚 former governor general, the Right Honourable Micha毛lle Jean,鈥� says 91亚色鈥檚 President & Vice-Chancellor Mamdouh Shoukri. 鈥淥ur Tubman Institute has played 鈥� and continues to play 鈥� a leading role in fostering debate, informing public policy and striving to resolve current social injustices as they relate to racism and slavery.鈥�

The Itineraries of African Canadian Memory initiative听will detail how the experiences of Africans and their descendants 鈥渉ave contributed to building this nation from 1604 through the present day,鈥� says 91亚色 Distinguished Research Professor Paul Lovejoy, Canada Research Chair in African Diaspora History and director of the Harriet Tubman Institute. 鈥淭he goal of the project is to raise consciousness about the diversity of the Canadian past.鈥�

Lovejoy, along with noted Underground Railroad historian and award-winning author Karolyn Smardz Frost and historian and genealogist Hilary Dawson, are working with community partners, government agencies and heritage organizations to identify sites evocative of the African Canadian experience. The purpose of the听Itineraries of African Canadian Memory initiative听is to establish the process by which Canadian sites related to slavery and slave resistance can be officially recognized by UNESCO. Eleven sites designated by the Ontario Heritage Trust have already received UNESCO recognition.

Delegates at the听2011 Summer Institute听will explore African migrations, slavery and the slave trade from both historical and contemporary perspectives. Ongoing听research projects by scholars at the Tubman Institute and its partners will be highlighted as part of the institute's proceedings. The event is associated with听a Major Collaborative Research Initiative funded by the Social Sciences & Humanities Research Council of Canada.

The week-long Summer Institute will provide a forum for senior scholars, junior researchers, teachers from all levels of education, librarians and public policy-makers to discuss historic and contemporary issues of forced servitude (slavery); the ways in which slavery is researched, taught and publicly presented (memory); and the impact of this public memory on status, placement and recognition in the national policy (citizenship). The Summer Institute will be broadcast via video podcasts to off-site workshops held simultaneously in Haiti.

Plenary sessions will be delivered by 91亚色 Professors Lovejoy,听Smardz Frost and Annie Bunting; Toyin Falola, distinguished professor, University of Texas; Francine Saillant, CELAT, Laval; Amani Whitfield, University of Vermont; Myriam Cottias, CNRS, Paris; Sir Hilary Beckles, principal, University of the West Indies, Barbados; Maria Elisa Vel谩zquez, president, UNESCO Slave Route Project; and Blaise Tchikaya, executive board, the African Union. These sessions will be held daily from Aug. 22 to 27, between 9am and 11am.

Jean Augustine (left), Fairness Commissioner of Ontario and the first African Canadian woman to be elected to the Parliament of Canada, will be the keynote speaker at the closing luncheon on Aug. 26. Augustine is the recipient of a 2011听honorary doctor of laws degree from 91亚色, and has donated her archival and parliamentary materials to 91亚色's Faculty of Education,听thus creating the opportunity to听establish 91亚色鈥檚 Jean Augustine Chair in Education in the New Urban Environment.

鈥淭he Summer Institute showcases the strength of interdisciplinary research at 91亚色,鈥� says Robert Hach茅, 91亚色鈥檚 vice-president research & innovation. 鈥淩esearchers work together with partners, community groups, international and external organizations to disseminate new knowledge and improve the accessibility of information across various sectors in society, while addressing complex social issues.鈥�

For more information, including a list of speakers and sessions, visit the website.听听

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91亚色 Professor Emeritus John S. Saul and 91亚色 Distinguished Research Professor in African history and Canada Research Chair Paul Lovejoy will be presented with the awards during the opening reception of the conference of the Canadian Association of African Studies 鈥� Africa Here; Africa There 鈥� at 91亚色 May 5 to 7.

As 91亚色 history Professor Jos茅 C. Curto, co-organizer of the conference along with sociology Professor听Ratiba Hadj-Moussa, says, 鈥淭hey鈥檝e spent a lifetime fighting, in one way or another, for Africa. You can鈥檛 get any better than them.鈥�

Right: John S. Saul

President of the CAAS Dennis Cordell听wrote that听Saul鈥檚 research achievements, along with his 鈥渄eep and long-standing commitment to the struggle for equity, equality and human rights in Africa鈥� are legion. He also pointed to Lovejoy鈥檚 鈥渨onderful abilities to teach and mentor鈥� students and younger colleagues.

Left: Paul Lovejoy

Lovejoy says the award is significant to him 鈥渂ecause of the recognition of my contribution to understanding the history of people of African descent especially so since this is the UN International Year for People of African Descent and my personal commitment to exposing the crime of the 鈥榮lave route鈥� and seeking reconciliation that can only be based on truth about the past.鈥�

In addition to receiving lifetime achievement awards, both Saul and Lovejoy will launch books in conjunction with the conference Saturday, May 7, at Accents on Eglinton Bookstore, 1790 Eglinton Ave. W., Toronto. Saul鈥檚 Liberation Lite: The Roots of Recolonization in Southern Africa (Three Essay Collective) will launch beginning at 6:30pm, followed by The Harriet Tubman Institute Series of which Lovejoy is the general series editor at 7pm. There are 10 books in the Tubman series, including Slavery, Islam and Diaspora; Africa, Brazil and the Construction of Trans Atlantic Black Identities; and Africa and the Americas: Interconnections During the Slave Trade.

Liberation Lite is comprised of听five essays. 鈥淭he theme I鈥檓 emphasizing is that of liberation as a multiplex concept,鈥� says Saul. His definition of liberation would include race, nation, class and gender, but also a democratically empowered voice. "Others in Africa and elsewhere听have come to define liberation only in terms of the narrow construct of national independence."

Saul says liberation has to be multidimensional to be a useful concept. 鈥淲e expected the liberation struggle would yield more than that,鈥� more than simply national liberation, but also class, race and gender freedom.听听It is not simply an emphasis that听"we white lefties had dreamt up and听taken over to Africa. We learned it there. We learned it there from Mozambique's Eduardo Mondlane, FRELIMO's first president, for example.鈥� As it stands, 鈥渓iberation has been pretty light and those who are concerned have to figure out how to deepen and enrich听it,鈥� he says. He also takes a听critical stance towards global capitalism and corporate imperialism, and what he calls听the "re-colonizing" of Africa by a new "empire of听capital". In consequence, the concluding essay looks at why socialism still has significant resonance and merit in southern Africa and beyond.

Saul has published听some 19听books, including Revolutionary Traveller: Freeze Frames from a Life (Arbeiter Ring, 2009) (see YFile, Jan. 13, 2010), Development after Globalization: Theory and Practice for the Embattled South in a New Imperial Age (Fernwood Publishing, 2006) and Decolonization and Empire: Contesting the Rhetoric and Reality of Resubordination in Southern Africa and Beyond (Fernwood Publishing, 2008).

He is hard at work on three more books. He says the lifetime achievement award听may well be听an acknowledgement of his body of work, but听he is also accepting it 鈥渙n behalf of all those who have worked diligently in support of听South African-related struggles over the years, as well as against Canada's own complicity 鈥� that is, our government and corporations too often being on the wrong side of such struggles there.鈥� In 2004,听Saul was elected fellow of the .

Last year, Lovejoy received the Distinguished Africanist Research Excellence Award from the University of Texas at Austin for his dedication, lifetime of service and contributions to the discipline. He is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada and Canada Research Chair in African Diaspora History, and has dedicated his career to researching and teaching African history.

For more information, visit the website.

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The conference will take place Thursday, May 5, from 8am to 8pm,听and Friday, May 6, from 8am to 8:30pm, in the Assembly Hall, 152 Founders College, Keele campus. On Saturday, May 7, sessions will take place from 9:30am to 3:30pm in 001 Winters College, Dining Hall, Keele campus.

One of the round tables will look at revolutions in northern Africa, while another, chaired by Curto, will explore Angola under the Weight of the Slave Trade during the 18th and 19th centuries. 鈥淲e鈥檙e doing the past, but we鈥檙e also doing very contemporary issues,鈥� says Curto. The first session of the conference will be a round table via the web with presenters from Brazil looking at the present and future perspectives of African studies in Brazil.

The three plenary speakers will tackle a range of topics. Political science and Islamic studies Professor Khalid Mustafa Medani of McGill University will talk about 鈥淚nformal Institutions and Identity Politics: The Evolving Political Economy of Transnationalism in North East Africa鈥�, sociology Professor Imed Melliti of the Institut Sup茅rieur des Sciences Humaines at the University of Tunis el-Manar will address 鈥淛eunesses maghr茅bines: religiosit茅, enjeux identitaires et enjeux de reconnaissance鈥� and Donald G. Simpson, who leads Innovation Expedition, will speak about 鈥淎frica 鈥� Here and There in the Sixties: A Canadian Perspective鈥�.

Left: Khalid Mustafa Medani

Medani was named a Carnegie Scholar on Islam in 2007 by the Carnegie Corporation of New 91亚色, Melliti is the author of several books, while Simpson is the former director of the International Development Research Centre and the Centre for International Business at the Ivey School of Business at the University of Western Ontario. For more biographical information on the plenary speakers, visit the website.

The conference theme, Africa Here; Africa There, is in recognition of the United Nations General Assembly proclaiming 2011 as the International Year for People of African Descent. The meeting will be hosted by 91亚色鈥檚 and will have sessions in both French and English.

Right: Donald G. Simpson

鈥淲hat we are doing is not only focusing on the continent itself, but outside the continent,鈥� says Curto. 鈥淭hrough the conference we are highlighting the bridge we鈥檙e making between the diaspora and the homeland.鈥�

The second round table of the conference, Africa Here: Commemorating the Early African Canadian Experience, will be chaired by 91亚色 Professor Michele Johnson, co-author of the book They Do as They Please: The Jamaican Struggle for Cultural Freedom after Morant Bay (University of West Indies Press), which will as part of the conference. Taking part in this round table panel will be 91亚色 Distinguished Research Professor in African history Paul Lovejoy looking at 鈥淎frica Here: Itineraries of African Canadian Memory and the UNESCO Slave Route Project鈥�, Hilary Dawson of the Harriet Tubman Institute discussing 鈥淟ocating Sites of Memory: Tracing an Itinerary of Memory for the African Canadian Experience鈥� and Karolyn Smardz Frost, a research associate with the Harriet Tubman Institute, talking about 鈥淪lavery, Resistance and the Underground Railroad in Toronto鈥�.

There will be presenters from Canada, the United States, Australia and Africa at the conference. 91亚色 history PhD candidate Jeff Gunn will discuss 鈥淐hild Soldiers and Modern Slavery in the 21st Century鈥�, while 91亚色 Professor Emeritus John S. Saul will discuss a 鈥淣ew Counter-Hegemonic Project in Contemporary South Africa: Moeletsi Mbeki, Zwelinzima Vavi and the Democratic Left Forum. Some of the other sessions will examine topics such as: Africa in Canada, Border Security in African Contexts, Governance and Management of Natural Resources in Africa鈥檚 Great Lakes Region, Perspectives on Gender in Africa, Urban Unrest in South Africa and Africans on the Move.

Lovejoy, director of the Harriet Tubman Institute for Research on the Global Migrations of African Peoples, will also chair the sessions examining The Central Sudan in Nineteenth & Early Twentieth Centuries and Aspects of the Slave Trade in the Atlantic World. In addition, there will be screenings of several documentaries, including Behind the Rainbow by Jihan El-Tahri, Sembene! By Jason Silverman and Escape from Luanda by Phil Grabsky.

For more information, including a detailed listing of speakers and sessions, visit the conference website or the website.

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As with previous 91亚色 Circle Lecture & Lunch events, organizers have planned a full day of inspiring lectures by some of the University鈥檚 leading thinkers. For full details, download a PDF of the 91亚色 Circle schedule.

In her听lecture, 鈥淭he Bird Detective: Investigating the Private Lives of Birds鈥�, 91亚色 Professor Bridget Stutchbury (left), Canada Research Chair in Ecology and Conservation Biology, will explain why some birds readily divorce their partners, why females sneak out to have sex with neighbouring males and why some mothers sometimes desert their babies. Based on her book (2010), this lecture promises to raise the blinds on the secret lives of birds.

On a more serious note,听Stutchbury will examine听whether听bird behaviour can help species adapt to the drastic changes humans are making to the environment. Since the 1980s,听Stutchbury has studied the ecology and conservation of migratory songbirds. In addition to The Bird Detective, she is听author of the book (2007)听鈥� a听finalist for a Governor General鈥檚 Literary Award.

"The Interesting Life of Olaudah Equiano, the African, and the Abolition of the British Slave Trade" is the intriguing title of the presentation by 91亚色听history Professor听Paul Lovejoy (right), Canada Research Chair in African Diaspora History and听director of the听. In his听lecture,听Lovejoy will explore the pivotal role of Gustavus Vassa, better known by his African name, Olaudah Equiano (c. 1742-1797), in advancing the abolition of the British slave trade. Many scholars consider William Wilberforce (c. 1759-1833) and Thomas Clarkson (c. 1760-1846)听to be听the pioneers of the British abolitionist movement, but Lovejoy posits that it was Equiano who was听the听seminal influence听in advocating the abolition of slavery and the emancipation of those in slavery.

Lovejoy听is a member of the executive committee of the UNESCO 鈥淪lave Route鈥� Project, co-edits African Economic History and Studies in the History of the African Diaspora 鈥� Documents (SHADD), and is research professor and associate fellow of the Wilberforce Institute for the Study of Slavery and Emancipation at the听University of Hull in the United Kingdom.

Acclaimed Canadian poet and 91亚色 Professor (left) will discuss her experiences as Canadian Athletes Now Fund鈥檚 first poet-in-residence during the 2010 Vancouver Olympic and Paralympic Games. In her lecture, which is aptly titled, "My Gold Medal Experience: Olympic Poetry", Uppal听will describe听how she听celebrated with the Canadian athletes and their families by writing poetry about winter sports, the games, and the personalities and performances that captured a nation鈥檚 imagination.

How she designed and then 鈥渢rained鈥� for her position, how the athletes responded to daily poetry readings, and other initiatives she鈥檚 undertaken to bridge the sometimes separate worlds of sport and art, will all be addressed. In addition, Uppal will read a short selection of the some of the 50 poems written at the games and recently collected in the book Winter Sport: Poems (2010).

"A World of Suburbs? Finding the Heart of the Urban Century in the Periphery" with 91亚色 environmental studies Professor Roger Keil (right) will offer 91亚色 Circle members insights into urbanization. The 21st century has been heralded as an urban century. Indeed, urbanization is now the most tangible shared experience of humanity. Keil will explore what is behind the story of the "urban revolution". He will uncover听an important and perhaps astonishing truth: Most urban dwellers now live in the periphery. From the squatter settlements of the Global South to the wealthy gated communities of North America, from the tower block peripheries of Europe or Canada to the newly sprawling cities of Asia, a common theme emerges: where cities grow, they grow at the margins.

Keil is the director of the City Institute at 91亚色 and professor听in the Faculty of Environmental Studies.听Among his publications are In-Between Infrastructure: Urban Connectivity in an Age of Vulnerability (2010) and The Global Cities Reader (2006). Keil鈥檚 current research is on global suburbanism and regional governance.听He is the co-editor of the International Journal of Urban and Regional Research and a co-founder of the International Network for Urban Research and Action.

This free series includes two events annually 鈥撎齣n the spring and fall each year听鈥� and provides opportunities for learning and networking in a relaxed environment.

Lecture & Lunch events are open to members of the 91亚色 Circle and their guests, each of whom are offered a complimentary lunch sourced from 91亚色 Region as part of the day.

The 91亚色 Circle receives generous support from 91亚色's Alumni Office (program partner) and the Toronto Community News and Metroland Media Group 91亚色 Region (print media sponsors).

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Last week, 91亚色 law Professor Obiora Okafor was elected to the advisory committee of the United Nations Human Rights Council.

The Nigerian-born professor brings his expertise in international law, human rights law,听 and immigration and refugee law, especially as it relates to Africa, to the .

鈥淭he committee is the think tank of the Human Rights Council,鈥� says . 鈥淚t鈥檚 where the thinking begins.鈥� He sees participating on the committee as a form of public service and an opportunity to make an impact at a relatively high level.

Okafor (left) was nominated by Nigeria to represent Africa on the 18-person committee for the next three years. The Geneva-based committee meets twice a year.

The son of an Ibo lawyer concerned about social justice, Okafor studied, practised and taught law in Nigeria before coming to Canada. He won a scholarship to the University of British Columbia, earned two graduate degrees and joined Osgoode Hall Law School in 2000.

鈥淗uman rights gave me a language and framework for expressing my concerns about social justice,鈥� says Okafor.

At Osgoode, the award-winning teacher lectures on international human rights law, human rights in Africa and the international law of south-north relations.

His most recent research projects include a study of human rights activism in Nigeria and a comparison of refugee rights in Canada and the United States post 9/11.

He is also affiliated with 91亚色鈥檚 , the and the Graduate Program in Socio-Legal Studies.

Okafor has served as an expert panellist for the UN Working Group of Experts on People of African Descent and a human rights consultant for the British Department for International Development. He has been a visiting scholar at the International Institute of Human Rights in Strasbourg, France, and in Harvard Law School's Human Rights Program.

鈥淚鈥檓 interested in a full range of issues, but the preponderance of my work is on human rights in Africa,鈥� he says.

He has written three books: ; ; and .

He has also co-edited three books: ; ; and .

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She was recommended by Ruth Klein, national director of B鈥檔ai Brith Canada鈥檚 League for Human Rights and executive director of the National Task Force on Holocaust Education, Remembrance and Research (NTF), and Adam Fuerstenberg, Professor Emeritus at Ryerson University and former director of the Holocaust Centre of Toronto. Fuerstenberg is assisting Sapoznik with a book project, Holocaust by Bullets, which looks at the mass murder of Jews in Berezne during World War II. Sapoznik has been invited to make a presentation about her research to a coming meeting of the NTF in Toronto later this year.

鈥淚鈥檓 incredibly humbled and honoured and I look forward to the opportunity,鈥� said Sapoznik, who had just returned from an international conference in Sierra Leone, Africa, on forced marriage in conflict situations.

Posted by Elizabeth Monier-Williams, research communications officer, with files courtesy of YFile鈥� 91亚色鈥檚 daily e-bulletin.

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Did you know that Upper Canada was the first place in the British Empire to make laws limiting slavery (1793)?

Did you know that Mathieu Da Costa, a multilingual translator of African descent, came to Canada with Samuel de Champlain in 1604?

If you didn鈥檛, now you do. And you can learn many more such interesting facts about the African-Canadian experience.

To mark Black History Month, 91亚色鈥檚 is posting did-you-knows daily on Facebook and Twitter throughout February.

The postings are part of the institute鈥檚 new project, . Funded by a knowledge mobilization grant from the Social Sciences & Humanities Research Council of Canada, the project aims to produce and share new scholarship on the immigration to Canada of African American refugees from slavery.

The institute is collaborating with scholars and educators, community groups, libraries, government agencies and other stakeholders to write a new chapter on Canada鈥檚 Underground Railroad-era heritage. The objective is to share this new information with the public, especially teachers, children and youth, in easily accessible ways.

For daily facts about the African-Canadian experience, visit , follow听 and check out the website.

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The AAMS, a new not-for-profit organization with a mission to end slavery through research, education and partnerships with other organizations, will celebrate its launch at 91亚色 with two events. The first is a benefit concert and anti-slavery art auction, Party for Freedom, on Friday, Jan. 28, in the Sandra Faire & Ivan Fecan Theatre, from 7 to 10pm. The second is the Slavery in the 21st Century conference on Saturday, Jan. 29, from 9 to 5:30pm, in the Founders Assembly Hall, 152 Founders College, Keele campus.

鈥淢odern-day slavery is arguably the most underpublicized human rights crisis of our time,鈥� says Sapoznik (MA 鈥�08). Twenty-seven million 鈥渋s equivalent to the entire population of Canada in the early 1990s. There are reported cases of slavery in every country in the world today with two exceptions: Iceland and Greenland. Public awareness of modern slavery also is low, enabling traffickers to lure thousands of victims into forced labour situations. Canada, for instance, is a source, transit and destination country for human trafficking.鈥�

AAMS has strong ties to 91亚色. Many of its executive members are 91亚色 graduate history students, and Paul Lovejoy, director of the , is one of the board members.

The freedom concert will feature motivational speaker Roger Cram of Hiram College as the emcee; anti-slavery activist, TED Speaker and AAMS board member , president and co-founder of ; survivor Natasha Falle; Glendene Grant, the mother of missing human trafficking victim Jessie Foster; actress, singer and songwriter Kate Todd; guitar player and Janelle Belgrave of Peace Concept; ; an anti-slavery art auction; the Fashion Studio 7 filming crew; and more.

AAMS鈥檚 inaugural conference, Slavery in the 21st Century, will examine a variety of issues affecting slavery today. It will feature Sapoznik; Paul Lovejoy, director of 91亚色鈥檚 Harriet Tubman Institute for Research on the Global Migrations of African Peoples; and University of Toronto Professor Emeritus Martin Klein. Bales will open the conference, followed by four panel discussions. The complete schedule is .

Canadian NGOs Freeing Slaves
Moderator: Roger Cram, Hiram College
Speakers: Jamie McIntosh of , Lisa Cheong of , Julia Smith-Brake of and Adam Churchman of .

Canadian Front-line Activists, Survivors, Filmmakers and Fair Trade Advocates
Moderators: Jeff Gunn and Mekhala Gunaratne of Alliance Against Modern Slavery
Speakers: Christina Cudahy of Abuse of Migrant Workers in the Seasonal Agricultural Workers Program; University of British Columbia student Brittany Luby (MA 鈥�08), founder of Indigenous 91亚色, who will show the five-minute video Trafficking of First Nations Women; Glendene Grant, the mother of missing human trafficking victim Jessie Foster; Azra Rashid, a filmmaker and writer who is currently developing a documentary on forced marriages in Canada; and Michael Sacco of ChocoSol.

Forced Labour, Forced Sex and Forced Marriage 鈥� Legal Responses and Law Enforcement Against Modern Slavery in Canada
Moderator: 91亚色 Professor Annie Bunting of the Law & Society Program
Speakers: Marty Van Doren, the RCMP鈥檚 human trafficking awareness coordinator in Ontario; Heather Richardson of Peel Regional Police; University of British Columbia law Professor , founder of the non-governmental organization fighting human trafficking and the child sex trade , and author of Invisible Chains: Canada鈥檚 Underground World of Human Trafficking (Viking Canada, 2010), has a video message; and Deepa Mattoo, a community legal worker at the .

Government Responses to Modern Slavery
Moderator: 91亚色 West Councillor Anthony Perruzza with assistance听from Valerie H茅bert of AAMS
Speakers: Conservative MP Joy Smith, Manitoba, and Peggy Nash, president of the federal New Democratic Party, with a video message from MP Glen Pearson.

To register for the conference or buy tickets to the concert, visit the website.

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Left: Annie Bunting

Bringing together historians of slavery and women's human rights scholars, this听workshop will explore the phenomenon of forced marriage and听enslavement from听comparative and historical perspectives.

During听conflicts in Sierra Leone, Liberia, the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), Uganda and Rwanda, women were kidnapped, raped and forced into "marriages" with combatants. recently found such gender violations to constitute a new crime against humanity of forced marriage as opposed to sexual slavery.

Workshop听speakers听will explore the merits of prosecuting those responsible for forced marriage under the heading of Sexual Slavery, Forced Marriage or Enslavement? They will also explore the historical antecedents of servile marriage and enslavement of women.

A keynote presenter at the workshop is听,听chair of the Women's Forum in Sierra Leone,听a听national umbrella organization of women's groups in the region. M'Carthy听has been working with the for the past three years and will speak about the experiences of听female victims in the Sierra Leone war. Other presenters will discuss comparable practices in Uganda, Rwanda and the DRC.

Speaking at the workshop are:

• , president of听Free the Slaves
• Ga毛lle Breton-LeGoff, a lecturer at the University of Quebec听in Montreal
• 91亚色 law & society Professor
• , a senior researcher in children, armed conflict and human rights at the听Feinstein International Center at听Tufts University
• 91亚色 Distinguished Research Professor Paul Lovejoy, director of听The Harriet Tubman Institute for Research on the Global Migrations of African Peoples and
• Rosaline M鈥機arthy, President, Women's Forum of听Sierra Leone
• , Open Society Initiative for Eastern Africa (OSIEA), Harvard Law School
• Osgoode Hall Law School Professor
• University of Hull Professor Joel Quirk,
• , RCUK Fellow in International Slavery at the听University of Liverpool
• , 91亚色 PhD candidate in history, The Harriet Tubman Institute for Research on the Global Migrations of African Peoples
• Jody Sarich, DePaul University, Free the Slaves

This workshop听is the first of two conferences supported by a grant.听In February 2011, Bunting will host a larger international conference in Freetown, Sierra Leone.听Today's听workshop is supported by numerous areas at 91亚色, including the Nathanson Centre on Transnational Human Rights, Crime & Security, the Office of the Provost, the Office of the Vice-President Research听& Innovation, the dean of the Faculty of Liberal Arts听& Professional Studies (LA&PS), and The Harriet Tubman Institute for Research on the Global Migrations of African Peoples.

For more information, visit听The Harriet Tubman Institute for Research on the Global Migrations of African Peoples website or contact听Kathy Mirzaei, interim graduate program assistant, Department of Sociology,听LA&PS.

Republished courtesy of YFile 鈥� 91亚色鈥檚 daily e-bulletin.

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