March 11, 2015

Anti-slavery advocate, historian to visit SVSU

An expert on the history of slavery will visit Saginaw Valley State University Tuesday, March 17, as part of the institution's Barstow Humanities Seminar series. Stacey Robertson will deliver her presentation, “Using History to Make Slavery History: Historical and Contemporary Human Trafficking,” at 7:30 p.m. in SVSU's Curtiss Hall banquet rooms.

Robertson, dean of the College of Arts and Humanities at Central Washington University, also serves as co-director of Historians Against Slavery, a nonprofit organization that advocates against modern-day slavery and human trafficking. She also recently appeared as a historical expert on the TLC television series, "Who Do You Think You Are?," hosted by actress Zooey Deschanel.

Robertson - who completed a Ph.D. in history at the University of California, Santa Barbara - is an author of four books including “Betsy Mix Cowles: Champion of Equality” and “Hearts Beating For Liberty: Women Abolitionists in the Old Northwest.” She is the recipient of several teaching awards and research fellowships and has lectured at more than 100 venues internationally.

To watch Robertson speak about the history of slavery and abolitionism in an online video, visit https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aaGjiMQ1hOI&t=27. Her SVSU talk is free and open to the public.