Call for papers for Law, race and empire conference: By popular request, we are pleased to offer an extended deadline of Tuesday 28th April for proposals for this exciting event. The law and its authority has always been a contested space. From the adversarial trial and debates on legal reform to discretionary decision making on who was tried, and pleas for clemency, the way people have navigated legal landscapes has always been both fraught and multi-faceted. This complexity is exacerbated in the imperial context, where the law could be both a symbol of the metropole’s control and, conversely, a safeguard against oppression. Over the last half century studies of legal practice, race relations and the maintenance of empires have flourished, deepening our understanding of these aspects of 18th and 19th century life. Yet this was an age where the abolitionist movement ensured that race and the law were a key part of the social agenda. Simultaneously, European militaries engaged in imperial expansion and policing, often forming racialist attitudes in the process which were both adopted, and influenced, by the metropole. Race, law and empire, therefore, should not be considered in isolation. This conference, which forms part of the Leverhulme Trust Funded ‘Sepoys and Slave Soldiers’ Research Fellowship, aims to take a holistic view of the intersections between race, law, armed forces and imperialist projects. In doing so, it seeks to widen our understanding of constructions of race, the rule of law and the operation of empires. This international, hybrid conference welcomes proposals for 20 minute papers, or full panels of three papers, which explore any two of the conference’s three core themes of race, empire and law between 1750 and 1850. 300 word paper proposals, with a 150 word biography and a stated preference for in person or online attendance, should be submitted to Dr Zack White (zack.white@port.ac.uk).
Race, Law and Empire, 1750-1850 Conference
University of Southampton AND online
17th - 18th July 2026
Call for Papers extended by popular request.
Full details below. Please share widely.
Established, emerging researchers are very welcome.
Supported by @leverhulme.ac.uk
