About the Center

The Center for the Study of Slavery and Its Legacies is home to teaching, research, and public history initiatives connected to Georgetown’s ongoing commitments in Slavery, Memory, and Reconciliation. The Center supports rigorous new scholarship and innovation in disseminating knowledge about the history of enslavement and its past and current legacies.

Responding to the university’s own history in 2016, Georgetown’s Working Group on Slavery, Memory, and Reconciliation recommended the creation of “an Institute for the Study of Slavery and Its Legacies at Georgetown to coordinate scholarly research, curricular development, and public programs about the history of slavery and its legacies at Georgetown, in Washington, D.C., and its surroundings, and in Catholic America.” The Center for the Study of Slavery and Its Legacies carries on that vision. 

The Center builds upon the creativity of Georgetown students, staff, faculty, and alumni, along with Descendants of the community enslaved by the Maryland Province of Jesuits. Projects range from digitizing archives held at the Library to developing new curriculum for teachers to storytelling through art, theater, and music. The Center promotes collaboration across the university, and between the university community, the Descendant community, and the broader public, to understand this important history and its meaning today.