University of Cambridge and Ameena Gafoor Institute create Visiting Fellowship in indentureship studies

The University of Cambridge, working closely with the Ameena Gafoor Institute, has created what is believed to be the first ever Visiting Fellowship into the study of Indentureship, the controversial system that replaced slavery in the British Empire.

Selwyn College has appointed Professor Gaiutra Bahadur as the first Visiting Bye-Fellow in Indentureship Studies.  Professor Bahadur is the author of Coolie Woman: The Odyssey of Indenture, which was shortlisted for the Orwell Prize.  It is a major study of the lives of Indian women who became indentured labourers to colonial plantations in the nineteenth century.

Selwyn College and the Ameena Gafoor Institute - whose director is novelist, poet and academic Professor David Dabydeen - collaborated closely in setting up the programme which allows a scholar to spend eight weeks at the University, conducting research. The programme will run for an initial five years.

The study of indentureship and its legacies was one of the recommendations made in the report of the Legacies of Enslavement at Cambridge Advisory Group, and it is hoped that enough funding will eventually be raised to establish a permanent Professorship in the subject, based at the University.

Professor Bahadur, who works at Rutgers University–Newark, said: “I am honoured and delighted to be the inaugural Visiting Bye-Fellow in Indentureship Studies.

“When I first began doing research in this area, the funding just wasn’t there, so it was in many ways a labour of love. That’s why I’m so happy to see there’s now visibility and funding like this to help future researchers.”

Professor Dabydeen said: “The study and documentation of Indentureship is undoubtedly valuable, but it has barely been included in the history syllabi of British and European Universities – a staggering omission considering the millions of individuals, and indeed entire cultures, irrevocably shaped by Indentureship and its legacies.

“That is why this Fellowship, and hopefully eventually establishing a Professorship, is so important. Cambridge has created an academic subject, bringing it from the margins to the very centre. I am immensely grateful to the Gafoor family in Guyana for helping to make all this possible, and to Dr Niven Narain, the Guyana-born scientist.”

Professor Bahadur will give a public talk and Q&A on the writing of Coolie Woman on Thursday, 27 July, at Selwyn College. Her presentation will include a reading from her book and a topical conversation about her research experiences with the Master of Selwyn College, Roger Mosey. Details are on the Selwyn College website here. The event will be live-streamed on Selwyn College’s YouTube channel here.