Featured blogs:
- Blog | Between the law and the household: what we do and (especially) do not know about domestic authority
Stijn van Beek, student at Radboud University and former intern at IISH // In 1790, Dul, an enslaved man owned by Johan Godfried Deebler, stood trial before the Schepenbank (Magistrate’s Court) of Batavia—a statutory… Read more: Blog | Between the law and the household: what we do and (especially) do not know about domestic authority - Blog | Enslavement and the papier-mâché of the colonial archive
Nicholas Sy, assistant professor at the Department of History, University of the Philippines Diliman and External PhD candidate, Radboud University // I have a stack of paper about slaves. It is as tall as… Read more: Blog | Enslavement and the papier-mâché of the colonial archive - Blog | Echoes of genocidal erasure: a reflection on historical ‘voices’ and digital infrastructure for colonial archives
Matthias van Rossum, IISH // The fog of colonial history has obscured many marginalized voices that deserve to be heard. Yet sometimes, if we read carefully, such voices scream to us... - Blog | Incomplete Echoes from the Past: A Historian’s experiences in a Colonial Archive
Iliana Tintori Reyes, PhD Researcher, International Institute of Social History // Old papers scattered on a wooden table, a latent past waiting to be discovered by the hands of the present, eager to unearth… Read more: Blog | Incomplete Echoes from the Past: A Historian’s experiences in a Colonial Archive - Blog | António, an enslaved man about to get married
Camille Le Brettevillois, PhD Researcher, International Institute of Social History // In 1613, in Lisbon, António Tinoquo, an enslaved man originally from the Bay of Bengal, appeared to the ecclesiastical trial of Lisbon to… Read more: Blog | António, an enslaved man about to get married - Blog | Uncovering the Invisible: Enslaved Women’s Work in the Cape Colony
Martijn Veenhuijsen, MA History at Radboud University // Strategically located halfway between Europe and Asia, between 1652 and 1795, the Cape of Good Hope functioned both a refreshment station and settler colony within the… Read more: Blog | Uncovering the Invisible: Enslaved Women’s Work in the Cape Colony
Find more blogs and reports
Upcoming events:
- 2026-05-12 | Seminar | Patricia Souza de Faria | Marriage and Social Networks of Enslaved and Freed Persons in Lisbon
- 2026-06-02 | Seminar | Nira Wickramasinghe | Slave descent and the borders of race
- Report | From acts of resistance and feminist theory to tortoiseshell trade and 17th-century currency – (not) everything I learnt at the GLOBALISE conference
Find more events
Recent reports:
- Report | From acts of resistance and feminist theory to tortoiseshell trade and 17th-century currency – (not) everything I learnt at the GLOBALISE conference
Lina de Swaaf, Intern, Project management & user interaction, Globalise // Digital archives open up histories in an unprecedented way; however, they also come with a series… Read more: Report | From acts of resistance and feminist theory to tortoiseshell trade and 17th-century currency – (not) everything I learnt at the GLOBALISE conference - Report | Rethinking Horizons for Histories of Slavery in Asia: ESTA Data Launch & Documentary Screening Slave Island
Britt van Duijvenvoorde, PhD Researcher, International Institute of Social History, Amsterdam // Slave trade in Asia is slowly gaining more attention in academic and public spaces. The… Read more: Report | Rethinking Horizons for Histories of Slavery in Asia: ESTA Data Launch & Documentary Screening Slave Island - Report | The Posthumus ESTER Conference
Camille Le Brettevillois, PhD Researcher, International Institute of Social History // The Posthumus ESTER RDC 2025 held in the University of Seville, Spain, between the 3rd and… Read more: Report | The Posthumus ESTER Conference - Report | Navigating Worlds of Coerced Labor
Britt van Duijvenvoorde, PhD Researcher, International Institute of Social History, Amsterdam // On the 16-17 October, the Workshop Navigating Worlds of Coerced Labour: Procurement, Mobility, Exploitation and Resistance of Enslaved,… Read more: Report | Navigating Worlds of Coerced Labor - Report | Seminar “Dependency, Bondage and Slavery in Northern Eurasia”
Pascal Konings, PhD Researcher and ESTA Project Coordinator, International Institute of Social History, Amsterdam // On Wednesday, October 1, 2025, the Joint Projects on Slavery (IISH-Radboud University)… Read more: Report | Seminar “Dependency, Bondage and Slavery in Northern Eurasia”
