Liverpool John Moores University is the latest English School to join the Universities Studying Slavery (USS) movement!

2019 is off to a very exciting start here at Universities Studying Slavery (USS) headquarters. We have had several new institutions contact us about joining, but even more exciting, we have had three new members sign up in the past week alone. The movement is increasingly one with trans-Atlantic dimensions. Liverpool John Moores University in Liverpool, England, joins the University of Bristol, Glasgow University, and University College-Cork as the fourth European school to embark on a process of coming to terms with its own difficult past.

As a port city, Liverpool featured prominently in the development of the trans-Atlantic slave trade with merchants within the city continuing to profit from an engagement with the slave economy for many years beyond the abolition of the slave trade. Liverpool John Moores University, established in 1992, has within its history a number of antecedent organizations that include the Mechanics Institute & Library, founded in 1823, and as an institution of higher learning they are keen to discover what the role slavery played in the origins of the University. Liverpool John Moores University looks forward to developing a keener understanding about its own past and how that knowledge can guide its efforts toward achieving a greater diversity and a more inclusive community in future years.

Dr. Andrea Livesey, a historian of slavery, will serve as the lead scholar on the project and engage with the broader consortium membership. Please welcome Liverpool John Moores University to the Universities Studying Slavery (USS) movement.