Dr. Klara Boyer-Rossol
Postdoctoral Guest Researcher
April 2024–March 2025
from the slavery and dependencies context in the South-West Indian Ocean."
Academic Profile
Historian of Africa, who wrote her doctoral thesis on slavery in Madagascar, Klara Boyer-Rossol explores the links between Slavery, Dependencies and the Circulation of naturalist collections in the long 19th-century Soouth-West Indian Ocean. She is interested in the collections of human remains and cultural objects that were assembled in a context of slavery and post-slavery in Madagascar, the Mascarene and East Africa, and which are currently held in French museums. As part of this research project, Boyer-Rossol proposes to question the exploitation of the enslaved or dominated bodies as part of the constitution of scientific museum collections (human skulls, facial casts, etc.), and to analyze the process of dehumanization of the individuals concerned, who have been largely anonymized and objectified. The provenance and identification research on these african collections will be at the heart of this project. The aim will be to reconstruct the context in which these human remains and objects were collected, to link them to identities (individual, collective, social and cultural), to retrace their trajectories from South-Western Indian Ocean to their inclusion in museum collections in Europe, to analyze the evolution of their scientific, museographical and heritage uses, and finally to question their place and reception today, in a context of growing demand of restitution.
2021–2022
International Researcher Fellow at the Bonn Center for Dependency and Slavery Studies (BCDSS), "Beyond Slavery and Freedom" cluster of excellency, Heinz Heinen Kolleg for Advanced Studies (HHK), University of Bonn, Germany
Research Project: "Slaveries, Dependencies and Circulation of Knowledge in the South West Indian Ocean during the long 19th century."
2018–2019
Post-doctoral student at the Laboratory Labex Hastec (History and anthropology of knowledge, techniques and beliefs), École Pratique des Hautes Études (EPHE), Paris, France. Affiliated to the Institut des Mondes Africains (IMAF)
Research Project: "Production et transmission de savoirs par des captifs déportés, au cours du XIXe siècle, de l’Afrique orientale à Madagascar et aux Mascareignes."
2015
PhD in African History, University Paris 7 Diderot
Supervisors: Faranirina Rajaonah (University Paris 7 Diderot) and Gabriel Rantoandro (University of Antananarivo)
Thesis: "Entre les deux rives du canal du Mozambique: Histoire et Mémoires des Makoa de l’Ouest de Madagascar. XIXe–XXe siècles," 980 p. Mention Very Honorable with unanimously congratulations from the Jury.
2006
Master 2 in South Societies History, University Paris 7 Diderot
Provisor: Faranirina Rajaonah (University Paris 7 Diderot)
Dissertation: "Les Makoa à l’Ouest de Madagascar. Enjeux identitaires et stratégies d’intégration sociale de descendants d’esclaves africains en milieu sakalava (XIXe-XXe siècles)," 250 p. Mention Very Good
2005
Master's degree in African History, University Paris 1 Sorbonne, in co direction with the University Paris 7 Diderot
Provisors: Pierre Boilley (Paris 1 Sorbonne) and Faranirina Rajaonah (Paris 7 Diderot)
Dissertation: "Les Makoa à Morondava. Enjeux d’intégration sociale de descendants d’esclaves africains en milieu sakalava. Côte Ouest de Madagascar. Fin du XIXe siècle jusqu’à nos jours," 250 p. Mention Good
Book Direction and Edition
- 2024. Forthcoming. With A. L. Araujo, M. Cottias. Représentations visuelles et cultures matérielles de l'esclavage. Atlantique-Océan Indien, Unesco, Editions du CNRS.
- 2024. Forthcoming. With M.-P. Ballarin. Les esclavages en Afrique. Passé et présent, Karthala Editions, collection Esclavages.
Book Chapters and Articles
- 2023. "Les 'Masombika' ou 'Makoa' à Madagascar." In Histoire Générale de l’Afrique, Unesco, Volume X, L’Afrique et ses Diasporas dans le monde, 345–354.
- 2022. "Du Mozambique à l’île Maurice, trajectoires de vie d’Africains 'Libérés.' L’exemple des 'Libérés' du Lily interrogés en 1846 par Eugène de Froberville à Port-Louis." In Regenerated Identities: Documenting African Lives, edited by Kartikay Chadha, Henry B. Lovejoy, Paul E. Lovejoy, and Érika Melek Delgado, 293–351. Harriet Tubman Series on the African Diaspora. Africa World Press.
- 2021. "Quelles Histoire, Mémoires et Identités dans un Musée de l’Esclavage?" In Slavery Museums Workshop. Issues and challenges concerning representations of slavery in Museums, edited by George Abungu, Vina Ballgobin, Rosabelle Boswell, Vijayalakhsmi Teelock, and Sheila Wong Luong, 61–66. Atelier sur les Musées de l’Esclavage. Les enjeux et les défis de la représentation de l’esclavage dans les Musées, CRSI. UOM Press.
- 2013. "Makua Life Histories: Testimonies on Slavery and the Slave Trade in the 19th century in Madagascar." In African Voices on Slavery and the Slave Trade, Volume 1: The Sources, edited by A. Bellagamba, S. E. Greene, and M. Klein, 466–480. Cambridge University Press.
Journals of International Rank (Double Peer Review) – Articles and Special Iissues
- 2024. "Les carnets de l’ethnographe Eugène de Froberville (1845–1847): des noms et des voix de captifs déportés de l’Afrique orientale aux îles Mascareignes." In "Gender and Slavery: Re-centering the Archives," Esclavages & Post-Esclavages 9, edited by Sarah Zimmerman and Nathan Marvin.
Direction and Editing of International Peer-Reviewed Journals Special Issues
- 2023. With L. Piccioni. "Crânes, cerveaux et têtes moulées: penser les collections scientifiques des empires (fin XVIIIe–milieu XX e siècles)," Artefact – numéro spécial 19. Access
Slavery Digital Humanities
- 2021. "Slavery Digital Humanities – Websites, Databases, Digital Archives and Collections. An Inventory," BCDSS. Open access
- 2012. "La législation sur la traite et l’esclavage à Madagascar au XIXe siècle" [texte et tableau]. In "Le droit des traites et des esclavages, Textes juridiques internationaux, nationaux et locaux concernant les traites et les esclavages en Europe, en Afrique et dans les Amériques du XVe au XXe siècle," EURESCL.Open access