1) Primary and secondary historical sources on fugitive slaves and on post-emancipation efforts to create subjects of ‘freedom’ in Anglophone Americas (in English) and on marronage and fugitivity in Brazil (in Portuguese) were gathered and analysed, and the review used to inform the design of field research for all four studies.
2) Field research was delayed by the covid pandemic but we were granted a one year no cost extension and it was completed, and the project has generated a substantial and unique bank of data on migrant and other subaltern populations, including more than 150 biographical narratives that illuminate the ambiguities and paradoxes of ‘freedom’ as an ideal and a lived experience.
3) We worked with research participants to co-produce counter-narratives to conventional antislavery stories of ‘modern slavery’, and communicate them through performance/film. In Brazil, we worked with Mirian Alves Souza of Fluminense Federal University, who developed a Theatre of the Oppressed production based on data from fieldwork for Study 4. The performance was filmed, and the film is available on the project website. In the UK, we worked with a community filmmaker and a group of young refugees and asylum seekers, to coproduce a film about their lived experience. The young refugees and asylum seekers have been given training in filmmaking and are full and equal participants in the process. For ethical reasons and taking their wishes into account, the film has not been made publicly available, but it has been screened to audiences of civil society actors, academics, students and policy makers in 6 UK cities, with the consent and participation of our refugee filmmaker participants. In Ghana, we worked with members of Volta Lake island communities to co-create a film that counters dominant discourse on children's participation in fishing as a form of 'modern slavery' and highlights the restrictions on rights and freedoms that all members of the community face in a context of extreme socio-economic deprivation.
4) A project website in English and Portuguese was established. Eleven peer-reviewed journal articles presenting research findings have been published to date. We have also published multiple blog posts and have organised or participated in more than 30 international events that included workshops for ECRs, roundtable, academic conferences, film screenings, a photo exhibition, a book launch, invited keynote lectures, online interviews and lectures with partners in Brazil, Ghana, South Africa, Canada, Belgium, and the UK.
