Filipa Ribeiro da Silva

• E-mail: filipa.ribeirodasilva@iisg.nl 
• Department: Research

Short Bio

Filipa Ribeiro da Silva is specialized on global labour history, slave trade, slavery, colonialism, and business history. She obtained her BA honours (licenciatura) and Research Master at the NOVA University of Lisbon (Portugal), and PhD at Leiden University (2009). Previously, she worked as an Assistant Professor at the History Department of the University of Macau, SAR China (2013-2015), and earlier as a Postdoc at the Wilberforce Institute for the study of Slavery and Emancipation (WISE), at University of Hull, in United Kingdom (2009-2011).

Throughout this trajectory, she has developed her research along three main lines of enquiry:

1. the history of transatlantic, East African and trans-continental slave trades and slavery within the framework of the Iberian and Dutch empires; 
2. the history of early modern and modern European colonial businesses and labour exploitation; and 
3. the history of African labour relations, labour migration and occupational structures. 
    

Research Projects (ongoing)

Filipa is currently the PI of the Project The Global Business of Slave Trade in Asia: Patterns, Actors and Gains in early modern Dutch and Iberian Slave Trade, financed by a Grant of the Open Competition M funding programme of the Dutch Research Council (NWO) (2023-2027). 

Over the past ten years Filipa has also worked together with Matthias van Rossum, Ulbe Bosman, Merve Tosun, and more recently with Pascal Konings in the establishment and development of the Exploring Slave Trade in Asia Network (ESTA) and the ESTA Database Project. 

Currently, she also collaborates with Matthias van Rossum on the projects: Resisting Enslavement, NWO Vidi (2023-2028), and Voices of Resistance, ERC Consolidator (2024-2029).

At the IISH, Filipa is also connected with two other projects: 

• the Global Collaboratory on the History of Labour Relations, 1500-2000 (2011-present)
• the Hub Global Labour Conflicts, with a focus on Labour Conflicts in Africa (2015-present)

PhD Supervisions (ongoing)

• Britt van Duijvenvoorde, IISH and Radboud University, with Matthias van Rossum
• Philipp Huber, IISH and Radboud University, with Matthias van Rossum
• Camille-le-Brettevillois, IISH and Radbound University, with Matthias van Rossum
• Illiana Tintori Reys, IISH and Radbound University, with Matthias van Rossum
• Isa Maria Moreira Liz, University of Évora, with Fernanda Olival (University of Évora, Portugal)

PhD Supervisions (completed)

• Fernando Mouta, University of Porto, Portugal, with Luís Miguel Duarte and Joana Sequeira

Publications: Filipa Ribeiro da Silva – Research output — Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences (KNAW)