The prestigious Fellowships are given to ‘well-established, distinguished researchers in the humanities and social sciences’ to devote themselves to projects of outstanding significance and originality. In 2020, 34 awards were made across the entire United Kingdom.
Professor LeBaron’s three-year fellowship will focus on the business of forced labour. She will write a book that challenges the tendency within political economy scholarship to externalise forced labour from understandings of capitalism, noting that since its early days, forced labour has been part of the story of capitalist development and the prosperity and growth it has delivered. Consolidating rare empirical data she’s collected on the nature and patterns of forced labour in supply chains over the last decade, the book will bring a wealth of new evidence and fresh thinking to debates about forced labour’s role within capitalism and illuminate its place in modern business.
The Award begins in September 2021 and will allow Professor LeBaron to take time out of her normal duties within the Department of Politics and International Relations to complete this research.