Acknowledgments
The collection of contributions in this volume is based on the workshop “Slavery, Law and Religion in the Early Modern Period”, held at UC Louvain in Louvain-la-Neuve on 8–9 March 2023. Its aim was to bring together an international group of researchers with a particular focus on junior scholars working on early modern slavery across the globe.
The workshop proposal was developed as part of my Marie Skłodowska-Curie Postdoctoral Fellowship (Individual Fellowship) under the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme. I would like to thank the European Commission for funding my time at UC Louvain, an institution that offered me an excellent research environment. Most importantly, I would like to express my gratitude to my host professor Wim Decock.
While drafting the proposal formed part of the fellowship, the workshop itself as well as the research for this publication took place after its end date because I took up a position at the University of Würzburg. I therefore wish to thank Prof. Anuschka Tischer at the University of Würzburg for supporting my plan to host the workshop. Moreover, I would like to acknowledge the administrative and catering staff at UC Louvain who helped with the organisation and the carrying out of the event, particularly Sara Wilmet and Sybille Descampe. I would further like to show appreciation to the university for enabling us to hold our presentations and discussions at their wonderful conference venue Louvain House, Espace du Lac. As regards financial assistance, I gratefully mention the generous sponsorship of the Institut Interdisciplinaire en Sciences Juridiques of UC Louvain.
I express my thanks to the editors-in-chief of Brill’s Law and Religion in the Early Modern Period series Herman Selderhuis and Wim Decock, to the copy editor for this volume, Martina Kayser, to Anne Konrad who helped prepare the manuscript, and to Rômulo Ehalt who agreed to give the keynote lecture on “Slavery in Captivity: The Society of Jesus and Early Modern Japan”. Evelina Haar kindly and expertly provided the conference poster layout and designed the cover illustration.
This volume contains nine chapters that are based on nine of the presentations and subsequent discussions at the event. My final note of gratitude goes out to the authors for their contributions to the workshop and to this publication.