Profile
Abstract
I am a social and cultural historian with an interest in economic history. I specialise in West Africa, specifically Ghana and Nigeria during the 19th and 20th centuries. Current interests include: the impact of multinational business on local African cultures of work and labour; employability in African knowledge economies; and the history of knowledge production in and about Africa.
I previously worked on: African responses to - and involvement in - colonialism, missionary enterprise, trading and business; the impact of colonial interaction on identity, community, and personhood; changing perceptions of status, culture, ethnicity and identity in colonial and postcolonial West Africa; and the ways in which people appropriate ideas and commodities from outside and make them meaningful as emblems of local communities and identities.
I am keen to supervise research students working on projects relating to any of the above areas of interest.
Office hour: Wednesdays 9-11am.
Professional career
- 01/1996 - 01/1999
Leiden University: Lecturer; Study Advisor - 01/1999 - 01/2012
University of Liverpool: Lecturer/Senior Lecturer in History (1999-2012); Reader (2012-2017) - since 10/2017
University of Leipzig: Professor in African History
Education
- 01/1992
Leiden University: MA in History - 01/1998
Leiden University: PhD in Social Science
- Spatial and Temporal Limitations of “Berlin’s Africa”: Between the Decline of a Spatial Format and the Dissolution of a Spatial Ordervan den Bersselaar, DmitriDuration: 01/2020 - 12/2023Funded by: DFG Deutsche ForschungsgemeinschaftInvolved organisational units of Leipzig University: Leipzig Research Centre Global Dynamics (ReCentGlobe); Institut für Afrikastudien; SFB 1199: Verräumlichungsprozesse unter Globalisierungsbedingungen
- Precarious and Informal Labour in South Africa and Nigeriavan den Bersselaar, DmitriDuration: 07/2019 - 12/2019Funded by: Stiftungen InlandInvolved organisational units of Leipzig University: Geschichte und Kulturgeschichte Afrikas
- van den Bersselaar, D.UAC between developmentalists and anti- revolutionaries: a multinational enterprise makes sense of post-independence AfricaIn: Dinkel, J.; Fiebrig, S.; Reichherzer, F. (Eds.)Nord/Süd: Perspektiven auf eine globale Konstellation. De Gruyter Oldenbourg. 2020. pp. 210-239
- van den Bersselaar, D.A United Africa Company (UAC) de vilã a nostalgia colonial: relações públicas e história empresarial na NigériaIn: Alves Furtado, C.; Sansone, L. (Eds.)Lutas pela memória em África. Salvador, BA: EDUFBA. 2019. pp. 525-570ISBN: 978-85-232-1970-3
- van den Bersselaar, D.White Collar WorkersIn: Eckert, A.; Belluci, S. (Eds.)General Labour History of Africa. Workers, Employers and Governments, 20th-20st Centuries. Oxford: James Currey. 2019. pp. 379-404
- van den Bersselaar, D.Business records as sources for African history (2018)
- van den Bersselaar, D.Nigerian Resource Wars and Economic Development in Historical PerspectiveIn: Uchendu, E. (Ed.)Nigeria's Resource Wars. Wilmington, DE: Vernon Press. 2020. pp. 3-31ISBN: 978-1-62273-831-1
- Andere Ehrungen: ASA Service Awardshow detailsvan den Bersselaar, Dmitri (Geschichte und Kulturgeschichte Afrikas)awarded in 2019 by African Studies Assocation (ASA) USA.
- Geschichte und Kulturgeschichte AfrikasKooperation Universität Leipzig - Universität Ibadan (Geschichte und Afrikastudien)Start Date of Collaboration: 01/01/2019Involved persons: van den Bersselaar, Dmitri; Beck, Rose Marie; Adesina, Olutayo C.
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winter semester
BA:
03-AFR-1100 Einführung Afrikastudien
03-AFR-1506 Geschichte und Gesellschaft in West- und Zentralafrika
MA:
03-AFR-2100 Introduction to African Studies
03-AFR-1703 African Political Economy
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summer semester
BA:
03-AFR-1200 Übung Wirtschaft in Afrika
03-AFR-1606 Geschichte und Gesellschaft in Ost- und Südafrika
MA:
03-AFR-2113 Debates about Development
03-AFR-2108 Theory from the South