Profile

Prof. Dr. Dmitri van den Bersselaar

Prof. Dr. Dmitri van den Bersselaar

Professor

Geschichte Afrikas
Geisteswissenschaftliches Zentrum
Beethovenstraße 15, Room 2.208
04107 Leipzig

Phone: +49 341 97-37035
Fax: +49 341 97-37048

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 Order
    van den Bersselaar, Dmitri
    Duration: 01/2020 - 12/2023
    Funded by: DFG Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft
    Involved organisational units of Leipzig University: Leipzig Research Centre Global Dynamics (ReCentGlobe); Institut für Afrikastudien; SFB 1199: Verräumlichungsprozesse unter Globalisierungsbedingungen
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  • Precarious and Informal Labour in South Africa and Nigeria
    van den Bersselaar, Dmitri
    Duration: 07/2019 - 12/2019
    Funded by: Stiftungen Inland
    Involved organisational units of Leipzig University: Geschichte und Kulturgeschichte Afrikas
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more projects

  • van den Bersselaar, D.
    UAC between developmentalists and anti- revolutionaries: a multinational enterprise makes sense of post-independence Africa
    In: Dinkel, J.; Fiebrig, S.; Reichherzer, F. (Eds.)
    Nord/Süd: Perspektiven auf eine globale Konstellation. De Gruyter Oldenbourg. 2020. pp. 210-239
    DOI: https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110682625-010
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  • van den Bersselaar, D.
    A United Africa Company (UAC) de vilã a nostalgia colonial: relações públicas e história empresarial na Nigéria
    In: Alves Furtado, C.; Sansone, L. (Eds.)
    Lutas pela memória em África. Salvador, BA: EDUFBA. 2019. pp. 525-570
    ISBN: 978-85-232-1970-3
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  • van den Bersselaar, D.
    White Collar Workers
    In: Eckert, A.; Belluci, S. (Eds.)
    General Labour History of Africa. Workers, Employers and Governments, 20th-20st Centuries. Oxford: James Currey. 2019. pp. 379-404
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  • van den Bersselaar, D.
    Business records as sources for African history (2018)
    DOI: 10.1093/acrefore/9780190277734.013.237
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  • van den Bersselaar, D.
    Nigerian Resource Wars and Economic Development in Historical Perspective
    In: Uchendu, E. (Ed.)
    Nigeria's Resource Wars. Wilmington, DE: Vernon Press. 2020. pp. 3-31
    ISBN: 978-1-62273-831-1
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more publications

  • Andere Ehrungen: ASA Service Award
    van den Bersselaar, Dmitri (Geschichte und Kulturgeschichte Afrikas)
    awarded in 2019 by African Studies Assocation (ASA) USA.
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more awards

  • Geschichte und Kulturgeschichte Afrikas
    Kooperation Universität Leipzig - Universität Ibadan (Geschichte und Afrikastudien)
    Start Date of Collaboration: 01/01/2019
    Involved persons: van den Bersselaar, Dmitri; Beck, Rose Marie; Adesina, Olutayo C.
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more cooperations

  • 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

  • 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