Gwyn Campbell, Canada Research Chair in Indian Ocean World History, Director of McGill’s Indian Ocean World Centre (IOWC) and PI of the MCRI project on the making of the IOW economy in the context of human-environment interaction, is an internationally renowned specialist on the economic and labour history of the IOW (Campbell, 2009, 2005, 2004), where he has had wide experience. Born in Madagascar, he has taught in India, Madagascar and South Africa, and served as consultant to the South African government in negotiations leading to the formation of an Indian Ocean regional association in 1997. Personal page
Alessandro Stanziani, Directeur d’études at the École des hautes études en sciences sociales (EHESS) and Centre national de la recherche scientifique, and Professeur affilié at the École normale supérieure de Cachan, is an international expert on the history of forced labour regimes (Stanziani, 2010, 2009, 2008a, 2008b) and leader of a major project on comparative forms of bondage in Russia-Central Asia (17th to 19th centuries) and the IOW (18th to early 20th century). Personal page
Jon Unruh, Associate Professor in McGill’s Department of Geography and IOWC affiliate, specialises on relationships between land tenure, conflict and environmental change, notably in contemporary Africa (Unruh, 2009, 2007, 2006), where he is a valued advisor to international bodies.
Johanna Ransmeier, Assistant Professor in McGill’s Department of History, specialises in the history of human bondage and trafficking in China (Ransmeier, 2011, 2007), issues on which she has lobbied at the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) in Geneva. Personal page
Margaret Kalacska, Assistant Professor in McGill’s Department of Geography, is a GeoScientist expert in ecological and forensic applications of remote sensing, HPC hyperspectral data analysis, machine learning (pattern recognition, Bayesian Networks, classification), spatial modelling and tropical ecology (Kalácska 2009, 2008, 2005). Personal page
Isabelle Guérin, Research Fellow with the Development and Societies unit of the Université de Paris I, Sorbonne, and with the Institute of Research for Development, and is an affiliate of the French Institute of Pondicherry, where she heads the “Labour, finance and social dynamics” research programme. She is a specialist on the social fabric of labour and credit markets, notably on the relationship between contracts, debt bondage and indebtedness in South India (Guérin, 2009, 2007, 2004). Personal page
Antonio Mendes, Maître de Conférences at the Université de Nantes and specialist on the history of the Portuguese slave trade (Mendes, 2010, 2009, 2008), is a member of the Centre de recherches en histoire internationale et atlantique and Centre international de recherches sur les esclavages, a research affiliate of the EHESS, Centro de Historia de Além-Mar in Lisbon and Emory University, and co-organizer of a monthly seminar series entitled “Les Traites: XVe-XXe siècles.” Personal page
David Picherit, Research Fellow in Anthropology at the Université de Paris I, Sorbonne’s Institut d’étude du développement économique et social, where he directs labour research issues on the “Employment, Indebtedness and Migrations (India, Mexico and Madagascar)” project, is an expert on labour in India (Picherit, 2009). He also directs the French Institute of Pondicherry’s “Labour: Popular Worlds and Globalisation” project. Personal page
Ulbe Bosma is Senior Researcher at the IISH since 1997 and since 2012 professor of ‘International Comparative Social History’ at the VU University Amsterdam. The endowed chair covers empirical research into labour and labour relations, from a comparative social historical and geographical perspective. His main fields of interest are the histories of labour and commodity production, especially sugar, and international labour migration. Personal page
Angela Schottenhammer, Professor of Chinese History in the Department of East Asian Languages and Cultures at Ghent University, Belgium, is a specialist of China’s and East Asia’s socio-economic and cultural history as well as global history with a main focus on socio-economic and cultural exchange relations in the East Asian world, including aspects of science and technology, and maritime history. She is Research Director and guest professor at the Indian Ocean World Centre (IOWC), History Department, McGill University, Canada, and has widely published in the field of the economic and socio-cultural history of China and East Asia. She speaks various languages, has taught in Germany, China, the Netherlands, México, Canada and Belgium, and is the chief-editor of the DFG-sponsored Online journal “Crossroads – Studies on the History of Exchange Relations in the East Asian World” (with a focus on inter-civilizational and cross-cultural exchange relations; cf. http://www.eacrh.net/ojs/index.php/crossroads/index) and of the book series East Asian Maritime History, part of East Asian Economic and Socio-cultural Studies (Dongya jingji yu shehui wenhua luncong 東亞經濟與社會文化論叢). Personal page / Bio & publications
Laura De Lisi, Phd student at Paris School of Economics and Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales, and ATER at Institut d’Etudes Politiques de Lille, specialises in the matter of child labor in West Africa from a multidisciplinary point of view. Her research interests on the subject include the role of poverty and the dynamics of family strategies, involving also the issue of forced child labor. Personal page
Claude Chevaleyre, PhD. candidate at the Center for Modern and Contemporary Chinese History (EHESS) is pursuing research on the status of late imperial Chinese so-called “bondservants”. Specializing more specifically on the social history of 17th century China, his research also deal with legal history and make large use of legal and judicial sources. Personal page