6 August 2026. Public Event. Dark Legacies: Companies, Colony and Slavery
Zoë Laidlaw, Sundhya Pahuja and Philip Stern in conversation with Paul Barclay
Thursday, 6 August 2026
5 - 7pm, Melbourne Law School
Image from Sir Henry M Stanley, How I found Livingstone: Travels, adventures, and discoveries in Central Africa (Sampson Law, Marston & Company 1871).
How have corporate exploitation, empires and slavery historically and jurisprudentially contributed to shaping the world, and continue to shape our present? As part of the suite of 2026 Miegunyah Fellowship events, LPGCIL is organising a public discussion on Dark Legacies: Companies, Colony and Slavery, bringing together three leading scholars from across the disciplines of law and history to discuss the entanglements between corporate exploitation, colonialism and slavery, and their legacies. Join us in conversation with:
Philip Stern (Duke University), a historian whose work focuses on the legal, political, intellectual, and business histories that shaped the British Empire and on the role of companies and corporations in colonial enterprise;
Zoë Laidlaw (University of Melbourne), a historian of nineteenth-century imperialism and colonialism whose current research focuses on Australian legacies of British slavery; and
Sundhya Pahuja (University of Melbourne), an international lawyer interested in the history, theory, and practice of international law in historical context, with a particular focus on the legacies of empire, corporate exploitation, and legal plurality.
The conversation will be moderated by Paul Barclay, an award-winning journalist and broadcaster.
5:00-5:45 pm: Refreshments
6:00-7:00 pm: Conversation
Room 920, Level 9
Melbourne Law School
185 Pelham Street Carlton