Michel Doortmont
His research career is in African history and politics, with a focus on West Africa, mainly Ghana. Subjects of study include the history of the Atlantic slave trade, including the trafficking of African children to Western Europe, from the seventeenth to nineteenth centuries, colonial relations between the Netherlands and Ghana, African state formation, and cross-cultural trade relations. He is currently engaged in a collaborative research project on the history and culture of Northern Ghana, which touches upon aspects of legal and illegal trade, artisanal gold mining, and the structuring and restructuring of international trade relations in past and present, focusing on labour, gold, and shea butter. Until 2020 he was co-editor of the journal History in Africa, and still holds that position for the Brill-book series African Sources for African History and Sources for African History. He is a fellow of the Royal Geographical Society and an Honorary Life Member of the African Studies Association (USA). He has been inter alia a visiting fellow at the IGK Work and Human Lifecycle in Global History at Humboldt University, Berlin, at the Centre of West African Studies, University of Birmingham, England, and at the African Studies Centre, Leiden University.