On Wednesday 14 October, Esther Captain, Endowed Professor of Intergenerational Impact of Colonialism and Slavery at the Faculty of Humanities, appointed by the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences, will deliver her inaugural lecture, titled Ruptures and links: Crossing generations and oceans in the history of slavery and colonialism.

In her inaugural lecture, Captain reflects on the ways in which younger generations relate to the history of slavery and colonialism. The disruption and damage inflicted on people’s lives by slavery and colonial rule can continue to reverberate through subsequent generations. Can the ruptures caused by (forced) long-distance displacement and transmitted across generations be repaired by later generations of descendants?

Her work will deal with the long-term impact of colonialism and slavery in the Netherlands, Indonesia, Suriname, the Dutch Caribbean islands and South Africa, with a specific focus on how experiences and memories of these systems have been transmitted from generation to generation.

The chair’s key question is currently debated both in academia and wider society: What impact, if any, do slavery and colonialism have on subsequent generations? Such impact, often referred to as “afterlives” of slavery and colonialism, can pertain to a spectrum of people from divergent backgrounds, such as the descendants of enslaved people, plantation owners, abolitionists and colonial administrators, both in the metropole and in former colonial societies.

The inaugural lecture will be livestreamed here.

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