Name: The Church of England and the legacies of chattel slavery
Start: 2026-02-24T17:00:00+00:00
End: 2026-02-24T18:00:00+00:00
Location: CL/A/057

The Church of England and the legacies of chattel slavery

Hear about Dr Bethany Elce's Leverhulme project on the Church's responsibility to reckon and respond to its difficult past.
About this Event

All staff, students and members of the public are welcome to join us for the first IPUP seminar of the Spring Semester. The talk will last for 40-45 minutes, followed by questions. After the event we will have drinks and further conversation for those who wish to stay.

The talk and Q&A will be livestreamed via Zoom.

The venue for in-person attendees is the Church Lane Building. An access guide is available. The closest public parking is Campus Central; please note that the Church Lane car park is permit holders only.

Talk Summary

In 2006, the Church of England issued a formal apology for its role in chattel slavery, and then in 2023, the Church Commissioners for England published findings of its close links with the transatlantic slave trade and began formulating a long-term response. Using the Church of England as case study, this talk examines the question of whether institutional efforts to reckon with their colonial pasts can help create a more racially just present and future.

Speaker Bio

Bethany Elce is a Leverhulme Early Career Fellow in the School of Social and Political Sciences at the University of Lincoln. She has a PhD in Gender Studies from SOAS University of London. Her research lies at the intersection of feminist political philosophy, colonial and postcolonial studies and ethnographic research. Bethany’s current Leverhulme project uses the Church of England as a case study in the project: Reckoning for Racial Justice? A Study of the Impact of Addressing Colonial Pasts.