Matthias van Rossum

Senior Researcher and professor of Global Histories of Labour and Colonialism at Radboud University Nijmegen

Bio

Matthias van Rossum is specialized in global labour history, the history of slavery, colonialism, resistance and social strategies.

He completed his dissertation at the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam in 2013. Matthias worked as lecturer in early modern social history at Leiden University (2012-2015), project leader of the Dutch Ships and Sailors project (Huygens ING, VU, 2013-2014) and as postdoc on the Labour Camps project (2014-2015). Since 2016, Matthias works as Senior Researcher at the Research Department of the International Institute of Social History.

Matthias was awarded various individual grants, such as the Veni (2015) and Vidi (2022) Grant of the Dutch Science Foundation (NWO), and the Consolidator Grant of the European Research Council (2023). He has collaborated in various successful research and infrastructure grants that have explored histories and sources of the histories of colonialism and slavery.

Publications: Matthias van Rossum – Research output — Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences (KNAW)

Current projects

GLOBALISE, NWO Groot (research infrastructure) (2022-2026), project leader (PI)

Resisting Enslavement, NWO Vidi (2023-2028), project leader (PI)

Voices of Enslavement, ERC Consolidator (upcoming: 2024-2029), project leader (PI)

Exploring Slave Trade in Asia (2017-), co-coordinator

Staat en Slavernij (2022-2024), coordinating committee member and editor

Current PhD supervision

Jens Aurich, IISH and University of Amsterdam, with Maartje van Gelder

Britt van Duijvenvoorde, IISH and Radboud University, with Filipa Ribeiro da Silva

Alexander Geelen, IISH and Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, with Ulbe Bosma

Philipp Huber, IISH and Radboud University, with Filipa Ribeiro da Silva

Rosa Kösters, IISH and Leiden University, with Leo Lucassen

Alyssa Renfurm, IISH and Radboud University, with Filipa Ribeiro da Silva

Hanna te Velde, IISH and Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, with Ulbe Bosma

Wouter Raaijmakers, Radboud University Nijmegen, with Dries Lyna and Kate Ekama

Stefan Reyes, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, with Inger Leemans and Erika Kuijpers

Selected committees and activities

  • Committee on Colonial Archives, Council of Culture (Raad voor Cultuur) (2022-2024)
  • Committee on National slavery museum, Council of Culture (Raad voor Cultuur) and Amsterdam Arts Council (Amsterdamse Kunstraad) (2021)
  • Advisory member, ‘Ons Koloniale Verleden in Vijftig Voorwerpen’, de Volkskrant (2021-2022)
  • Advisory member for the Slavery Exhibition, Rijksmuseum (2018-2021)

Selected past projects

Past PhD supervision

Angus Dalrymple Smith, Wageningen University, 2017, with Ewout Frankema and Elise van Nederveen Meerkerk

Selected publications

Books

Key articles

IISH Staff | Matthias van Rossum - Photo by Martin van Welzen

Current Research Projects

  • Between local debts and global markets: Explaining slavery in South and Southeast Asia 1600-1800 (NWO Veni Grant, 2016-2019)
  • Resilient diversity: The governance of racial and religious plurality in the Dutch Empire, 1600-1800 (NWO Vrije Competitie Grant, 2017-2021)
  • Historische Verkenningen Vakbeweging (2017-2018)