My research analyses the establishment of the Katanga copper mining industry from the perspective of shifting configurations of power between the colonial state, international capital, and African economic and political institutions.
Academic Background
MA in International Economic History, University of Leicester. Dissertation title: World Bank Missions and the Politics of Decolonisation: the Case of East Africa, 1958-1963. (Advisor: Dr. Bernard Attard) Degree awarded 14 July 2004, with Distinction.
Licentiate in History (Modern History), Ghent University, Belgium. Degree awarded on 23 September 2002, with the Greatest Distinction.
Published Work
(2010, forthcoming) 'Towards a History of Mass Violence in the Etat Indépendant du Congo, 1885-1908', South African Historical Journal, 64 (4) (accepted for publication).
(2009) 'World Bank Survey Missions and the Politics of Decolonization in British East Africa, 1957-1963', International Journal of African Historical Studies, 42 (1), 1-28.
Conference Papers
8 June 2010: Following Milestones and Breaking New Ground: the Robert Williams Papers and the Expansion of the South African Mining Frontier. Presented at the 'The Real Story? Personal Papers, Life Histories and Africa'. SCOLMA (the UK Libraries and Archives Group on Africa) Annual Conference, British Library, London.
8 Dec 2008: Thinking with and beyond the State: Sub- and Supranational Perspectives on the Exploitation of Congolese Natural Resources, 1885-1914. Presented at: "The quest for natural resources in Central Africa: the case of the mining sector in the Democratic Republic of the Congo". Interdisciplinary symposium at the Royal Museum for Central Africa, Tervuren, Belgium.
15 March 2008: Arbeid, Staat en International Kapitaal in de Ontwikkeling van de Katangese Mijnbouwindustrie [Labour, State and International Capital in the Development of the Katanga Mining Industry]. Presented at the bi-annual meeting of the Belgian Society of Contemporary Historians, University of Brussels, Belgium.
31 May 2007: World Bank Survey Missions and the Politics of Decolonisation in British East Africa, 1957-1963. Presented at the Second Postgraduate Conference in Imperial and International History, University of Sheffield.
18–20 May 2007: 'Milestone of African civilisation'? Mining and Labour in Early Colonial Katanga, 1900–1913. Presented at the 28th Irish Conference of Historians: 'Empires and their Contested Pasts', Queen's University Belfast.
3 May 2007: Ages of Empire? A Comparative Approach to Empires. Introduction to the "History Postgraduate Forum", University of Sheffield.
25 April 2007: The Bourse du Travail du Katanga: 'A parastatal recruitment organisation with monopsonistic powers?' State-Capital Relations in the Mobilization of Katanga's Labour Power, 1910-1914'. Presented at the 'African Economic History Workshop', London School of Economics.
19-23 July 2006: Conflicting Imperial Ideologies: Congo Reform and the Establishment of the Katanga Mining Economy. Presented at the 'European Mining History Conference', Ruhr-Universität Bochum, Germany.
30 May 2006: Britain, Katanga and Congo reform. Presented at the 'First Postgraduate Conference in Imperial and International History', University of Sheffield.
27 April 2006: Belgian Colonial Historiography and the Public. Imperial History Group paper, University of Sheffield.
Book Reviews
(2010, forthcoming) 'O. LIKAKA "Naming Colonialism. History and Collective Memory in the Congo, 1870-1960,"' South African Historical Journal, 64, 4.
(2008) 'Histories of Belgian Colonialism in the Congo. G. VANTHEMSCHE "La Belgique et le Congo. Empreintes d´une Colonie, 1885-1980" and F. BUELENS "Congo 1885-1960. Een Financieel-Economische Geschiedenis,"' Journal of African History, 49 (2), 327-329.
(2007) "K. GRANT, 'A Civilised Savagery. Britain and the New Slaveries in Africa, 1884-1926,'" Journal of Imperial and Commonwealth History, 35 (1), 143-145.
(2004) "G. CONVENTS, 'Afrika Verbeeld. Film en de (de)kolonisatie van de Geesten,'" Mededelingenblad BVNG, 25 (3), 16-19.
Teaching
Demonstrator 'Data Analysis for Historians'. Second year undergraduate course, University of Leicester
Seminar leader: 'The Making of the Twentieth Century'. First year undergraduate course, University of Sheffield
Seminar leader for a variety of courses at Ghent University, Belgium, including 'History and Theory', 'Historical criticism: Modern History', and 'Introduction to World-Systems Analysis'.
Mentoring and pastoral support of undergraduate dissertation students at the Department of Modern History, Ghent University, Belgium.
