Anne-Isabelle Richard is a University Lecturer at the institute for History.

More information about Anne-Isabelle Richard

Fields of interest

My research interests are European and world history from a transnational and transimperial perspective. I focus on political, economic, cultural and intellectual links between ideas of European, imperial, regional and global construction and belonging from the late nineteenth century onward.

Research

In 2016 I received an NWO Veni grant for my new research project: ‘Eurafrica. African perspectives, 1917-1970s’. Over the next years the European Union and various African countries are re-examining their relationship in terms of, for example, trade (Cotonou agreement is expiring in 2020) and migration. In the next few years (2017-21) I will analyse the history of the interaction between actors from these two continents relating to the concept of Eurafrica. The idea of Eurafrica suggested that Europe and Africa were interdependent and complementary continents. It has generally been examined from European, and particularly French, perspectives. It is necessary to also examine the other side of the Eurafrican idea and analyse how African actors, in particular various civil society actors from West Africa, engaged with, or rejected this idea.

This project is situated in my broader research interests at the intersection of European and world history. In the past I have worked on civil society networks surrounding various international organisations such as the League of Nations, on anti-colonial, European and socialist networks in the post-1945 period, and on the influence of colonialism on the European movement in France and the Netherlands, two 'imperial nation-states', in the interwar period, which I examined in my PhD dissertation.

Conceptually I am interested in themes such as transnationalism, civil society, empire, decolonization, regionalism and regionalization.

Conferences and workshops

When the nation is not enough. Democratic rights on the global stage, 1870-1970. Leiden University, 14-16 January 2016.

Visions of Empire in Dutch History. From the early modern period to the 21^st century. Leiden University, 29-30 September 2016.

Global Regionalism. Leiden University, 27-28 January 2017.

With Alanna O’Malley I co-convene the Contemporary History and International Relations Research Seminar (CHIRRS) at Leiden University.

Teaching activities

My teaching experience reflects my joint interest in European and world history, having taught and supervised in these fields at the University of Cambridge, the European University Institute in Florence and Utrecht University. At Leiden I have taught courses on European integration history from a global perspective, on Euroscepticism, Regionalism, African international history and on methodology at MA and BA level.

Curriculum vitae

I have a Ph.D. in history from the University of Cambridge and an M.A. in History and an LL.M. from the University of Leiden, in the Netherlands. I have also studied at the University of Edinburgh, at University College London, and at Yale University as a Fulbright Scholar. Previously, I was a Max Weber postdoctoral fellow at the European University Institute in Florence, Italy and held a NWO Rubicon research grant at Utrecht University in the Netherlands. I currently hold a NWO Veni grant at Leiden University.