Our Projects
Visiting Fellowship in Indentureship Studies
The Ameena Gafoor Institute and the University of Cambridge has set up a visiting fellowship in indentureship studies. This programme allows a scholar to spend eight weeks at the University, conducting research, it will run for an initial five years.
Selwyn College, Cambridge, has appointed Professor Gaiutra Bahadur, author of Coolie Woman: The Odyssey of Indenture, as its first visiting bye-fellow in Indentureship Studies.
Journal of Indentureship and its Legacies
The Ameena Gafoor Institute is working on publishing the Journal of Indentureship and its Legacies, the purpose of which is to create a unique and unprecedented academic space where the study of indentureship, as a distinct form of unfree labour, can be analysed in all its forms. No such Journal currently exists anywhere in the world, in spite of the critical importance of indentureship to world history. It will be led, initially, by academics Professor David Dabydeen, Dr Maria del Pilar Kaladeen and Professor Amar Wahab.
The Annual International Conference on Indentureship and its Legacies
The Ameena Gafoor Institute is currently organising an Annual International Conference on Indentureship and its Legacies in London, which will aim to bring together scholars, and create a platform for them to share their work to a wider audience.
The Oral History Project
The Ameena Gafoor Institute is grateful to veteran filmmaker Arlen Harris and his team for creating the Oral History Project by way of conducting, editing and enhancing through visual materials, the various interviews. Arlen Harris has worked on and produced programmes that have received Sony and Royal Television Society (RTS) awards. The RTS recognises excellence in Television and its awards set the gold standard for Film and Television productions.
Emerging Scholarship and Art
Explore the work of new and emerging scholars and artists.
Brij V. Lal Prize
In memory of late Professor Brij V.Lal, who passed away on Christmas day, 2021, the Lal family has established an annual Brij V. Lal Prize (Indian Indentureship, Girmit and Gimitya, and its Legacies) for the best published article in any academic journal covering the broad subject of Indian indentureship, Girmit and Girmitya, and its legacies. ‘Legacies’ is taken to mean the specific legacies of the Indian indenture – including diasporic descendants of the original indentured migrants.
Photos sourced from: The National Archives UK, The National Library of Jamaica and Louis Renaudineau on Unsplash