Dr. Elena Barattini

Brokering Dependency: Diplomacy, Labour, and Empire-by-Proxy in the Post- Abolition Caribbean (1865–1885)

Elena Barattini's project investigates how coercive labour regimes were reconfigured after the abolition of Atlantic slavery. She is particularly interested in examining how new systems of dependency emerged through infrastructures of mobility, diplomacy, and recruitment that connected the Caribbean to wider imperial worlds.

Focusing on the period between the 1870s and 1890s, her research traces transimperial networks linking Cuba, Venezuela, British and French colonies in the Caribbean, and the Indian Ocean. It foregrounds the role of intermediaries – labour brokers, consuls, physicians, shipowners, and commercial agents – who operated across imperial boundaries, often without formal imperial authority of their own. The project examines how consular protection, legal loopholes, and maritime logistics inherited from Atlantic slavery enabled the large-scale recruitment and transportation of indentured and contract labourers.

Methodologically, the project combines microhistory, legal history, and social network analysis, drawing on multilingual archival sources from European, Caribbean, and American repositories. 

2021–2025
PhD in Global History of Empires, University of Turin (Italy)

2018–2020
MA in Sociology, University of Turin (Italy)

2025–2026
Lecturer in Latin American History, University of Turin (Italy)

2025
Lecturer in History of the Atlantic World, University of Turin (Italy)

2024–2025
Teaching Assistant in African History and Development, University of Turin (Italy)

2023–2024
Teaching Assistant in History of the Americas, University of Turin (Italy)

2026
Slicher van Bath de Jong Foundation Scholarship (CEDLA, University of Amsterdam)

2024 
STOREP Young Scholar Award in Economic History

2023 
Cecilia Gilardi Foundation Scholarship