Contributions are invited for the fourteenth special issue of the journal Esclavages & post-Esclavages/Slaveries & Post Slaveries on the theme of “Slavery and Human Remains.” This special issue is being coordinated by Klara Boyer-Rossol (Boon University), Magali Bessone (Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne), and Ricardo Roque (ICS, University of Lisbon). The editors look forward to receiving proposals in French, English, Spanish, or Portuguese by June 1, 2025.
This issue explores how the relationship with human remains has evolved in the context of slavery and post-slavery. It takes a multidisciplinary approach, bringing together history, anthropology, philosophy, archaeology, bioarchaeology, and law.
The question of the legal status of human remains (Fontanieu 2014) raises ethical and heritage issues that are highly relevant today from the perspective of human dignity. In France, a report on the “repatriation of human remains abroad” was drawn up on January 8, 2025, following the law of December 26, 2023, aimed at facilitating the repatriation of human remains belonging to public collections. The right to burial is now widely accepted and enshrined in the laws of various countries. However, it does not, or only marginally, concern(s) enslaved people. The treatment of the “marginalized” dead has been addressed in part by the fields of history and archaeology (Carol & Renaudet 2023). Philosophy has also taken an interest in these unburied bodies that cannot be mourned (Butler 2004). For many descendants of formerly enslaved people, mainly Africans, the process of tracing ancestral remains has proven complex. This is due to the lack of individual graves and the difficulty of identifying ancestors buried in collective graves. The discovery, preservation, and study of cemeteries of enslaved people and all human remains unearthed during archaeological excavations (for example, in Mauritius and Manhattan) are therefore proving invaluable sources of information about the identities and lives of people in slavery and post-slavery situations (Seetah et al. 2010; Blakey 2014).
Can the protection of such cemeteries of enslaved people, or even the return or repatriation of the remains of enslaved people (especially in France to the overseas territories), be seen as forms of reparation: existential, social, political, epistemic? Can the links between the dead and the living be re-established in this way? And what should be the nature of these links if the dead are to be treated with respect?
Themes:
Contributions may focus on the following themes, among others:
- What kind of material and immaterial sources do cemeteries and tombs contain about the identities, lives, and deaths of enslaved people
- Funerary rites, religious cults, spiritual and cultural practices about ancestral remains (localized or absent)
- The scientific exploitation of the dead bodies of people of African and servile descent: medical and surgical experiments, post-mortem measurements, and casts
- Scientific racism and collections of “slaves” and “Blacks” skulls and bones
- Deportation, anonymization, and objectification of human remains in the context of slavery and post-abolitionism
- Restitutions, repatriations, and reburials of human remains whose history is linked to that of slavery and its abolition.
- Patrimonialization and memorial policies of slavery burial sites
Submission Information:
Proposals of articles (between 500 and 800 words) must be sent by June 1, 2025, to ciresc.redaction@cnrs.fr. Decisions on manuscripts will be announced on July 1, 2025.
Accepted papers (45,000 characters maximum, spaces included, bibliography included) must be submitted in French, English, Spanish, or Portuguese before November 2, 2025. They must be accompanied by an abstract or résumé of no more than 3,600 characters. The complete list of recommendations to authors is available here. Final versions must be ready by July 1, 2026.
To view the full CFP, please visit the journal website.
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