Wilberforce Institute for the Study of Slavery and Emancipation

Housed in Oriel Chambers in Hull City Centre, since 2005, its aim is to research slavery in the past and the present.

The institute was opened in advance of celebrations marking the bicentenary of the Slave Trade Act 1807 which, through former Member of Parliament (MP) and major abolitionist movement figure William Wilberforce, the city of Hull has strong links to.

It aims to foster links with other universities worldwide, including prestigious American institutions, such as Yale, Harvard and Stanford.

[2] As part of the University of Hull, the institute often holds public lectures on the subjects of both historical and contemporary slavery, including the annual Alderman Sydney Smith lecture,[3] so-named after the former Labour MP for Kingston upon Hull South West, Sydney Smith.

[4] In 2015, it was announced that the institute had been awarded the Queen's Anniversary Prize for Further and Higher Education for its "research applied in combating modern forms of slavery".