25. July 2025

Congratulations to BCDSS PhD Researcher Diego Schibelinski Research Grant for PhD Researcher Diego Schibelinski

on Being Awarded the Prestigious Slicher van Bath de Jong Grant by the Centre for Latin American Research and Documentation (CEDLA) in Amsterdam

We are thrilled to announce that the research project, "Sailing a Hidden Atlantic: Slave Ship Crews during the Age of Abolition (1807–1867)," by our PhD researcher Diego Schibelinski has just been awarded a €6,000 grant, chosen from over 115 submissions! This funding will support his upcoming stay in London, where he’ll be diving into original materials at the National Archives, Kew.

His work explores the untold stories of the men who crewed slave ships, especially those voyaging to Brazil during the final decades of the trade. Rather than treating the ship just as a vessel, he sees it as a workplace and living community: a place where early capitalist labor regimes, including coerced and commodified labor, intersected in complex ways.

Using Labor History and Social History methods, he aims to recover who these crew members were, how they were treated under systems of illegality, and how they navigated life and labor under brutal conditions.

Diego schibelinski.png
Diego schibelinski.png © BCDSS
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The Slicher van Bath de Jong Fund supports historical research on Latin America (1500–1940), offering at least four annual scholarships of up to €10,000 each. It is aimed primarily at scholars under 35 who are pursuing or preparing a PhD in history, or have recently achieved an equivalent degree, and who are affiliated with a university in Europe or Latin America.

The scholarship funds research activities, such as archival work or library studies to be carried out in the year following the award. Recipients receive 75% of the grant upon acceptance and the remaining 25% after submission and approval of a final report.