Palazzo d’Azeglio – Torino
22-23 October, 2026

Slavery was an issue that greatly preoccupied the philosophical and political writings of the European Enlightenment. However, the debate was fought out not only in weighty tomes and punchy pamphlets, but across the whole of the cultural sphere, spilling out on to the stage and the canvas, and even layering itself into the built environment.
This conference focuses on this less well understood side of Enlightenment thinking about slavery and abolition, exploring how representations of slavery across the media ecology of eighteenth-century Europe influenced ideas in this most vital of debates.
SCIENTIFIC COORDINATION: NICHOLAS CRONK
SPEAKERS
Julia Prest (University of St Andrews)
Scott M. Sanders (Dartmouth College)
Sofya Dmitrieva (Voltaire Foundation, University of Oxford)
Cristina Trinchero (University of Turin)
Aleksander Musiał (GTA Institute, ETH Zürich)
Karīna Janova-Jannava (Riga, Latvia)
Obenewaa Oduro-Opuni (University of Arizona)
