News

Making slavery a thing of the past

A panel of international experts, led by Fernne Brennan of the School of Law and Human Rights Centre, hopes to create a new framework to enable organisations around the world to make the ‘slavery’ of poorer nations through ongoing and unfair trade practices a thing of the past.

At a high profile conference this month Fernne and an impressive line-up of NGOs (non-governmental organisations), human rights lawyers, trade experts, politicians and fellow academics will discuss the best means of remedying the continuing legacy of the transatlantic slave trade.

The aim is to produce a group of Experts by Experience who will formulate a framework for influential international organisations such as the United Nations, the World Trade Organisation and the International Monetary Fund.

Fernne believes the conference and the establishment of the panel will be a major turning point in the debate about how slavery and its effects can be consigned once and for all to the past: ‘Current trade practices are inherently and institutionally racist and are designed and manipulated to leave large parts of the world impoverished and effectively enslaved. We are not looking simply for financial compensation through litigation, we want to understand the legacy of the slave trade in order to guarantee access for families across the world to food, education and healthcare.’

As part of her ongoing research into the issue, Fernne has been delving into her own family history and life in Guyana, including looking at the trade of famous products like Demerara sugar which she refers to as ‘slave sugar’: ‘It was a fascinating process and it just reinforced to me how the system still does not work because of unfair treatment and unfair economic practices and systems.’

‘Colonialism, Slavery, Reparations and Trade: Remedying the ‘Past’? takes place on 10 November at the Brunei Gallery in London. Further details are available at www.essex.ac.uk/reparations.

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ISER leads the way in Understanding Society

A group of the University’s researchers are at the helm of the world’s largest and most ambitious longitudinal survey ever. Understanding Society, a £15.5 million project led by the Institute for Social and Economic Research (ISER) will look at the long-term effects of social and economic change and become a flagship resource for researchers and policy makers all around the world.

The survey will collect information annually from 100,000 individuals, across 40,000 households from across the UK. The large sample size will give a unique opportunity to explore issues for which other longitudinal surveys are too small to support effective research. It will permit analysis of small subgroups, such as teenage parents or disabled people, and be used to inform policy decisions on a wide range of issues from the long term health implications of smoking to the impacts of poverty on children.
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Initial funding for the innovative project comes from the Department of Innovation, Universities and Skills and the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC). It represents the largest single investment in academic social research resources ever launched in the UK. Initial funding will carry the study though to 2012, however it is envisaged that the project will continue for decades to come.

Speaking at the launch of the new survey, Understanding Society Director, Professor Nick Buck of ISER said: “We are very pleased to lead this exciting project which will provide high quality longitudinal data about the people of the UK, their lives, experiences, behaviours and beliefs, and will enable an unprecedented understanding of diversity within the population. It represents the latest stage in the UK’s uniquely successful tradition of longitudinal data and we aim to ensure it becomes a flagship resource for the research and user community in the UK and beyond.”

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Iconic waterfront building opens

University Campus Suffolk (UCS) has fully opened its flagship building on the Ipswich waterfront.

In October the last UCS staff moved into the new building which has an unusual curved structure, multicoloured windows and grass roof. In total, the building has six floors with two large lecture theatres on the ground level. Floors one to four are home to academic offices and teaching rooms with state-of-the-art equipment. Floor six houses the building’s biggest board room that can fit 50 people and boasts panoramic views of the waterfront.

Alongside this are a variety of informal spaces for students to relax, chat and work, with a cafe offering high quality, low priced food and drink, while Apple computers in the Learning Resource Centre mean students can work on high tech equipment throughout their studies.

The new UCS building seen from across Ipswich marina

One UCS priority has been to promote a healthy and environmentally friendly atmosphere so, with this in mind, the waterfront building has been designed with a Sedum roof - a living, green roof that supports a range of plants and wildlife, whilst reducing the carbon emissions of the building itself. This dedication to the environment was acknowledged in March 2007, when UCS celebrated an excellent BREEAM (BRE’s Environmental Assessment Method) rating.

Richard Lister, Director of Planning and Resources at UCS, said: ‘The waterfront building will undoubtedly inject an added feeling of vibrancy to the town. UCS has a great opportunity to create and establish an urban campus on one compact and exciting site.’

The new building has already played host to big events with the first UCS Freshers’ Fair on the ground floor, where the open space easily accommodated a variety of stalls as hundreds of students flocked to join clubs and societies. It also held UCS’s most popular open day to date, with potential students and their parents visiting Ipswich from across the country. Departmental talks allowed them to get a feel for the learning environment in this iconic new building on the marina.

Also in the printed November edition of Wyvern:

• Experts discuss financial crisis
• Research income boost
• Wind turbine for healthy building