Slavery and Serfdom in Europe and the Americas
in the Early Modern Period
10-12 SEPTEMBER 2025
PALAZZO D’AZEGLIO, VIA PRINCIPE AMEDEO 34 - TURIN
INTRODUCTION
Fondazione 1563 per l’Arte e la Cultura (hereinafter “Fondazione 1563”) has since 2013 supported
research and advanced training in the field of the humanities.
In a wider effort to pursue this goal, in 2020 Fondazione 1563 launched the Turin Humanities
Programme, a research initiative that allows junior scholars to work on interrelated research
projects under the guidance of especially appointed Senior Fellows.
THP aims at promoting two-year research projects about relevant global history topics.
Under THP Fondazione 1563 launched a fourth (2024-26) call for applications for research on
Slavery and Serfdom in Europe and the New World: Debates in the Early Modern Period.
SUMMER SCHOOL 2025 AND ADMISSION REQUIREMENTS
The Turin Humanities Programme and Fondazione 1563 are pleased to invite doctoral students
and early career researchers to submit their applications to the Summer School Slavery and
Serfdom in Europe and the Americas in the Early Modern Period.
The Summer School aims to explore the modern debates surrounding slavery and serfdom in
Europe and the Americas within the timeframe of the Early Modern period, defined here broadly
as stretching from the sixteenth century to the beginning of the nineteenth.

The project will aim to encourage a comparative perspective, focussing on three key aspects:
1. Early Modern and Enlightenment debates ranging from race and ethnicity to the rights of man.
Debates about enslavement begin with ethical, economic and theological questions, and evolve
in the period towards a greater focus on race, ethnicity and discussion of the rights of man. How
are notions of race debated in the period? Is racial discrimination an underlying cause of
enslavement, or rather a consequence of it? In what ways is slavery essential to early-modern
capitalism and commerce?

2. Serfdom and slavery.
Serfdom existed widely across Europe in the Early Modern period. The challenges relating to
research into serfdom in part mirror the challenges concerning enslavement, yet the two
phenomena are almost always studied separately. To what extent are there parallels between
serfdom and slavery? Are these two phenomena entirely distinct from one another?

3. The role of imaginative literature and the creative arts.
Novels, stories, plays, operas, paintings and prints play an increasingly important role, in the
Enlightenment period in particular, in exploring notions and constructions of otherness, and in
creating often paradoxical fictions of enslavement. Creative works play a crucial part in
communicating these unresolved questions and tensions to a broader public.
The THP 2025 Summer School provides a forum for postgraduate students and early career
researchers in the field of humanities and the social sciences (history, philosophy, literature, art
history, music, anthropology, religion) to engage with the most up-to-date academic debates
on enslavement, serfdom, ethnicity and race in Europe and the Americas in the early modern
period, and to approach these questions from a wide range of methodological approaches.
English will be the default language of the Summer School.

The Summer School programme includes keynote lectures by Demetrius Eudell (Vassar
College, USA), Marisa Fuentes (Rutgers University), Vanessa Massuchetto (Max Planck
Institute for Legal History and Legal Theory), Darrin McMahon (Dartmouth College, USA),
Pärtel Piirimäe (University of Tartu), Ann Thomson (European University Institute, Florence),
Devin Vartija (University of Utrecht), research presentations by the Junior Fellows of the Turin
Humanities Programme, feedback sessions and roundtable discussions.
o foster dialogue between senior and young scholars, the 2025 Summer School offers its
participants a unique opportunity to contribute to the broader discussion on themes of slavery
and serfdom in Europe and the Americas in the Early Modern Period with their own ideas and
research.
Successful applicants will also have the chance to present their papers in panel sessions which
will be followed by a Q&A led by a panel discussant.

HOW TO SUBMIT AN APPLICATION
To apply for the Summer School, prospective participants should submit a brief academic CV
(max. 2 pages), an abstract of the research they wish to present (max. 400 words) and a short
essay on why they would like to attend the Summer School (max. 200 words).
Please, upload these materials within the application form that can be found on the website of
Fondazione 1563 at the following link: www.fondazione1563.it/application-form-thp-
summer-school/ by 10.00 PM (Italian/CET time) of June 15, 2025.
The Summer School will be activated only with a minimum of 10 participants; a maximum
of 12 participants is allowed.

COSTS AND FEES
The participation in the Summer School is free to all Italian and International postgraduate
students and early career researchers.
Travelling expenses to and from Torino and accommodation expenses in Torino will be borne by
the participants.
Upon acceptance of the participation in the Summer School, the participants will be asked to
confirm their participation in the social events proposed by Fondazione 1563.
For information, please contact the organisers at Diese E-Mail-Adresse ist vor Spambots geschützt! Zur Anzeige muss JavaScript eingeschaltet sein.

SUMMER SCHOOL 2025 SELECTION CRITERIA
The candidates will be selected based on their resumes and the relevance of their intended
contributions to the general subject of the Summer School.
They will be informed of the result of the selection by early July via the email address they
included in the application form.
Successful applicants will receive the attendance form that will have to be signed for
acceptance and returned, on pain of forfeiture, within 5 working days starting from the date
of the communication.
Fondazione 1563 reserves the right to suspend, modify or cancel this selection procedure or the
Summer School in any moment at its incontestable discretion, without that being in any way for
the Candidates a right or a demand to claim any refund, compensation or reimbursement.
Turin, April 29, 2025