Postgraduate research opportunities Animals and the Atlantic Slave Trade: The role of animals in the commercial, diplomatic, and maritime networks connecting Britain, West Africa, and the Americas, 1660-1752
ApplyKey facts
- Opens: Monday 30 October 2023
- Deadline: Friday 1 December 2023
- Number of places: 1
- Duration: 3 years
- Funding: Home fee, Stipend
Overview
This project explores the history of animals and the transatlantic slave trade in the early modern period. It seeks to understand the understudied role of animals within the commercial, diplomatic, and maritime networks central to the perpetuation of the trafficking of enslaved peoples throughout the English and British Atlantic world, bringing the history of the transatlantic slave trade into dialogue with work in the emergent field of animal studies.Eligibility
Candidates must have a background in a relevant research area (broadly conceived).
This opportunity is open to candidates who have a Master’ degree in a relevant subject area, and a UK Honours degree at 2.1 or above, or equivalent for non-UK qualifications.
For international qualifications, please see equivalent entry requirements.
An IELTS (Academic) score of 6.5 minimum is required (with a minimum 6.0 in each component, or equivalent) for candidates for whom English is not a first language and this must be evidenced at point of application. The University of Strathclyde accepts a variety of equivalent qualifications.
Candidates will be notified if they have been selected or not for interview by mid-December 2023. Interviews will be conducted around mid-January 2024.
Project Details
Animals played an integral role in every stage of the early modern transatlantic slave trade. Whether carried as consumable cargo during transatlantic crossings; exchanged between African and European agents as diplomatic gifts; or transported from Africa for private menageries in Europe and America, animals were vital to the perpetuation of slaving networks. But, while the transatlantic slave trade is an established and vibrant area of historical research, few studies have yet analysed animals’ role and importance within it. Viewing the nonhuman world through the lens of the records relating to English and, after 1707, British slaving networks, this project will bring the history of early modern slave trading into dialogue with work in the emergent field of animal studies.
The primary research questions are:
- What role did animals play in the transatlantic slave trade?
- How far did the movement and consumption of animals shape the trajectories and directions of transatlantic slaving networks?
- To what extent did transatlantic slaving networks produce new knowledges about the nonhuman world?
Addressing these questions by focusing on the decades surrounding the rapid intensification of the English and British slave trade during the period of the Royal African Company (1660-1752), this study will broaden our understanding of the multifaceted ways in which animals sustained the commercial, diplomatic, labour, and nutritional networks central to the transatlantic slave trade and the development of Atlantic empires. The transatlantic slave trade involved the movement and exchange of peoples, provisions, and merchandises across several key locations, particularly European ports where slaving vessels were outfitted and organised, island outposts where slaving vessels replenished provisions and victuals while voyaging to and from West Africa, slaving forts maintained by Europeans on the west African coast at the behest of African patrons, and slaving markets in the Americas. Animals were consumed, exchanged, and / or trafficked at every stage of these voyages. Within political and commercial exchanges between Africans and Europeans, animals or animal products acted as gifts, currencies, merchandises, and displays of wealth and power. Within labour and nutritional networks, both terrestrial and marine animals were not only crucial to the sustenance of European merchants, mariners, and fort dwellers but also to the sustenance of enslaved African individuals who were imprisoned and forcibly moved between slaving forts, markets, and vessels throughout the Atlantic world.
Crucially, this project will examine the role of animals at sea as well as on land. While the maritime nature of the transatlantic slave trade is well acknowledged with the historiography, the experiences of mariners and enslaved persons at sea are often discussed in isolation from the landed networks that they were connected to. Within animal studies, there is a similar imbalance towards the study of animals on land when compared to animals at sea, in the sea, and from the sea. This study will pay equal attention to the experience of terrestrial and marine animals in transit (as well as consumed in transit) alongside those terrestrial and marine animals utilised or consumed on land. In doing so, this project will offer new insight into the land and sea connections that maintained early modern maritime trade, not only viewing these networks through the perspectives of animals as they were exchanged within transatlantic ports and markets but also as they experienced and/or were consumed within the watery worlds in-between.
Overall, this project will offer original insight into the role of animals within the transatlantic slave trade while providing important and new understandings of:
- the mechanisms supporting the commercial and political alliances between African and European agents
- the trading activities and networks that supported the sustenance and development of Atlantic empires
- the cultivation of new knowledge surrounding the nonhuman world
In doing so, the centrality of the nonhuman world within the commercial, diplomatic, and maritime networks surrounding the transatlantic slave trade will be revealed.
Further information
This project will develop the place of early modern British and environmental studies within the Department of Humanities and will reflect the existing and ongoing research interests of Dr Wilson (maritime cultures, maritime law, and marine environments) and Professor Fudge (animal studies, literary studies). The student will engage with materials from some of the most cutting-edge areas of historical and cultural research relating to decolonization, the relationship with the non-human natural world, and the Blue Humanities. They will find an established and collegiate context for their studies, linking with ongoing interdisciplinary and international research focused on oceans and maritime cultures (including One Ocean Hub and Lessons from Lake Malawi that Wilson is Co- and Principal Investigator on) as well as the monthly Animal Studies Reading Group and annual British Animal Studies Network (both organised by Fudge). This studentship will support the cultivation of an emerging research cluster focused on Environmental Studies within the Department of Humanities that can be significantly developed, including for further doctoral training opportunities, drawing on Fudge and Wilson’s existing connections within and outside of the School (including with Law, Civil and Environmental Engineering, and Chemical and Process Engineering).
Funding details
Funded candidates will receive a maintenance grant (stipend) in line with UKRI guidance to cover their living expenses, with an annual cost of living increase. Stipend for 2023/24 session is £1,551 per calendar month (tax free). Home fees are included in the studentship.
International candidates are very welcome to apply but should be aware that they will be required to pay the difference between the home student tuition fee and the international student tuition fee in the region of £12k GBP per annum for the duration of study.
Student must be able to commence on 1 April 2024.
While there is no funding in place for opportunities marked "unfunded", there are lots of different options to help you fund postgraduate research. Visit funding your postgraduate research for links to government grants, research councils funding and more, that could be available.
Supervisors
Primary Supervisor:
Dr David Wilson is Lecturer in Early Modern Maritime and Scottish History at the Department of Humanities at the University of Strathclyde. His research focuses on the interplay between maritime activity and imperial authority within the context of British colonialism between the seventeenth and twentieth centuries, including the subjects of piracy, fishing, trade, marine science, maritime law, and coastal communities. His first book, Suppressing Piracy in the Early Eighteenth Century: Pirates, Merchants, and British Imperial Authority was published by the Boydell Press in 2021 and focuses on British attempts to suppress piracy in the Atlantic and Indian Oceans in the early eighteenth century. His current research focuses on colonialism and fisheries governance in nineteenth- and twentieth-century Africa. He acts as PI on the international and interdisciplinary AHRC-NERC funded project “British Colonialism, Marine Sciences, & Fisheries Governance: Lessons from Lake Malawi in the Mid-Twentieth Century” and Co-I on One Ocean Hub, a GCRF-funded trans-disciplinary project focusing on integrated and inclusive oceanic governance.
Additional Supervisor:
Professor Erica Fudge is Professor in English at the Department of Humanities at the University of Strathclyde. Her research is the fields of Animal Studies and Renaissance Studies. Her work on the early modern period has focused on issues as varied as meat eating, dreams, children, laughter, reason, bladder-control and animal faces. In addition, she has also published work on contemporary culture, and has looked at a range of areas where humans interact with animals, including pet ownership, experimentation, the wearing of fur, anthropomorphic children's literature and vegetarianism. Her work is interdisciplinary, using literary and archival materials, including in her book Quick Cattle and Dying Wishes: People and their Animals in Early Modern England, which was published by Cornell University Press in 2018 and uses wills to trace people’s relationships with their livestock animals. Professor Fudge also acts as director of the British Animal Studies Network (BASN) which holds two meetings a year, one always at the University of Strathclyde. The network brings together those with an interest in human-animal relations from a range of backgrounds from both within and beyond academia.
Apply
Only complete applications will be considered. A complete application should include the following documents uploaded:
- Academic CV
- Academic Transcripts and Certificates
- IELTS (minimum overall band score of 6.5, with no individual score of less than 5.5 – or equivalent - gained within the last two years, if applicable)
- 2 x academic reference letters regarding your suitability for this research project
- Cover letter describing your suitability for, and why you are interested in, this project
Number of places: 1
To read how we process personal data, applicants can review our 'Privacy Notice for Student Applicants and Potential Applicants' on our Privacy notices' web page.