The Gilder Lehrman Center for the Study of Slavery, Resistance, and Abolition, in collaboration with the Gilder Lehrman Institute for American History and the National Museums Liverpool, held its first annual international teachers institute, “Middle Passages: A Shared History of the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade,” in Kokrobitey, Ghana.
Forty teachers and staff members from the United States, Liverpool, and Ghana attended the ten-day institute, held from July 29 to August 7, 2009. James Walvin (University of York) and Stephanie Smallwood (University of Washington) were the Institute’s lead historians. Professors Yaw Bredwa-Mensah (University of Ghana), Akosua Perbi (University of Ghana), Dmitri van den Bersselaar (University of Liverpool), and Suzanne Schwarz (Liverpool Hope University) assisted with field trips, lectures, workshops, and the development of the syllabus and reading materials. Next year’s institute will take place in Liverpool, England.