Conference Speakers

Please click on each speaker's name to learn more about their work.

Kecia Ali, Boston University

Married Female Slaves in early Islamic Law

Latest Book Information

Ellen Barry, prison rights activist

Marginalized Women in United States Prisons: Enslavement of the Oppressed

Mia Bay, Rutgers University

In Search of Sally Hemings: Slavery and Sexual Agency in the History of the American South

Debra Blumenthal, University of California, Santa Barbara

"As if she were his wife": Slavery and Sexual Ethics in late medieval Spain

Fay Botham, Le Moyne College

Anti-miscegenation Statues: Roman Catholic and Protestant Theologies of Marriage and Race

Sheila Briggs, University of Southern California

Gender, Slavery, and Technology: The Shaping of the Early Christian Moral Imagination

Bernadette Brooten, Brandeis University

Sexual Ethics Untainted by Slaveholding Values

Catherine Clinton, Yale University

Breaking the Silence: Sexual Hypocrisies from Thomas Jefferson to Strom Thurmond

Adrienne Davis, UNC School of Law

Miscegenation and Morality: The Contemporary Politics and Racial Meanings of Marriage

Frances Smith Foster , Emory University

Call me, "Mrs": Motherhood, Marriage, and (sexual) Morality in 19th century African America

Jennifer Glancy, Lemoyne College

Habits of Slavery in Early Christianity

Dwight Hopkins, Brandeis University

"She shall not go free as male slaves do": The Female Debt-Slave in the Hebrew Bible

Sylvester Johnson, Indiana University

Biblical Debates over Slavery

Wilma King, University of Missouri, Columbia

"He said he would give us some flowers": Sexual Violations, Girls, and the Law in the Antebellum South

Gail Labovitz, University of Judaism

The Purchase of His Money: Slavery and the Ethics of Jewish Marriage

Florence Ladd, award-winning novelist and poet

Original Poetry

Linda McClain, Hofstra University School of Law

Abstinence-Plus Sex Education: The Best Model for Free Citizens

Mende Nazer, Antislavery activist formerly enslaved in Sudan

A Formerly Enslaved Woman Responds to the History of Slavery and to Religious Teachings on It

Nancy Rawles, award-winning novelist

Short Story Reading

Dorothy Roberts, Northwestern University School of Law

The Paradox of Silence and Display: Sexual Violence of Enslaved Women and Contemporary Contradictions in Black Female Sexuality

Barbara Savage, University of Pennsylvania

The Same-Sex Marriage Debate in the African American Churches: A Historical Perspective

Emilie Townes, Yale Divinity School

From Mammy to Welfare Queen: Images of Black Women in Public Policy Formation

David Wright, Brandeis University

"She shall not go free as male slaves do": The Female Debt-Slave in the Hebrew Bible