CFP: Reparations and Restitution: Legal Redress, Historical Justice, and Corporate Accountability in the Post-Colonial Present

Call for Papers

We invite scholars, researchers, practitioners, and community activists to submit proposals for the one-day conference “Reparations and Restitution: Legal Redress, Historical Justice, and Corporate Accountability in the Post-Colonial Present”, to be held at the University of Brighton on 14 November 2025.

This interdisciplinary conference will bring together diverse voices to explore the political, ethical, legal, ecological, and historical dimensions of reparation and restitution across the African Diaspora. We are particularly interested in contributions that interrogate the legacies of slavery, colonialism, racial capitalism, and environmental exploitation, and examine how justice and accountability are being pursued through legal action, ecological activism, public memory, and community mobilisation.

This event aims to advance critical dialogue on the role of institutions, corporations, and states in responding to historical and ongoing injustices, including environmental degradation that disproportionately affects African, Caribbean, and other Black communities globally. We welcome proposals that highlight climate justice and ecological restitution as vital dimensions of reparative justice in the 21st century.

We welcome abstracts on (but not limited to) the following themes

• Legal strategies for reparations and international litigation
• Corporate accountability for slavery, colonialism, and environmental harm
• Global South debt relief and debt cancellation as forms of reparative justice
• Climate justice and environmental reparations: towards an ecological ethic of repair
• Historical memory, truth commissions, and reconciliation processes
• Reparations in the UK, US, Caribbean, African, and Latin American contexts
• The use of archival and historical evidence in reparations claims
• The ethics of apology, symbolic redress, and institutional reform
• Reparations through art, literature, and memorial practices
• Intersectionality and justice: race, gender, class, and displacement
• Youth and community-led activism for climate and historical justice

Submission Guidelines:

• Abstracts: 250–300 words
• Include: Title, full name, institutional affiliation (if applicable), theme area and a short bio (100 words)
• Deadline: 15 August 2025
• Notification of acceptance: 15 September 2025
• Contact person: Luqma Temitayo Onikosi
• Submit to: [email protected]

We particularly encourage submissions from early-career researchers, artists, and practitioners working beyond academia.