Handbook

Slavery is a contested term and nowhere more so than in the Asia Pacific. This subject explores the procurement, treatment and resistance of enslaved peoples. It draws on models of slavery from the ancient world and the atlantic slave trade and considers how these relate to later forms of slavery in Australia, Asia and the Pacific Islands. Case studies of child slavery, sexual slavery, domestic and plantation slavery will be considered in colonial, wartime and post-colonial settings. Debates over distinctions between slavery, indentured labour and trafficking will be considered in the context of ongoing abolitionism and the demands of international law.