Rafaël Thiebaut defended his PhD thesis, entitled "Traite des esclaves et commerce néerlandais et français à Madagascar (XVIIe-XVIIIe siècles)" in November 2017 under joint supervision of Stephen Ellis & Ulbe Bosma (Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam) and Bertrand Hirsch (Université Paris 1). He is a postdoctoral researcher at the International Institute of Social History where he works on a research project entitled "Resilient Diversity" on the labour relations of the heterogeneous ethnic populations within the Dutch colonial empire between 1600 and 1800. His research interests include social and economic history, especially slavery and the slave trade, in the Early Modern Age, in the Western Indian Ocean region (Madagascar, Mozambique, Mauritius, La Réunion, Seychelles, the Comoros).

List of recent publications:

2019

   - With Th. Vernet & V. Teelock, Inventaire sélectif sur l’esclavage / Select guide to sources on slavery from the Archives Nationales de France.

Fonds Colonies C4, correspondance à l’arrivée, Île de France (1714-1810), vol. 2, Réduit & Port-Louis, University of Mauritius Press, Truth and Justice Commission & Centre for Research on Slavery and Indenture.

2018

- “Some Thoughts Concerning the Effects of the European Slave Trade on the Dynamics of Slavery in Madagascar in the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries” in J. Fynn-Paul & D. Pargas (dir.), Slaving Zones: Cultural Identities, Ideologies, and Institutions in the Evolution of Global Slavery, Leyde, Brill, pp. 169-204 Open access: http://www.brill.com/products/book/slaving-zones

2017

- "The Role of ‘Brokers’ in Securing the Dutch Slave Trade on Madagascar during the Eighteenth Century” in I. Walker, M.J. Ramos & P. Kaarsholm, Fluid Networks and Hegemonic Powers in the Western Indian Ocean, Lisbonne, CEI-IUL, pp. 37-64 Open access: https://repositorio.iscte-iul.pt/handle/10071/13788

- “An informal French-Dutch Alliance: Trade and Diplomacy between the Cape Colony and the Mascarenes, 1719-1769”, Journal of Indian Ocean World Studies, 1, pp.130-148 Open access: http://jiows.mcgill.ca/article/view/23/21

- “La création d’une élite franco-malgache à Madagascar au XVIIIe siècle”, Revue historique de l’océan Indien, 13, pp. 201-215

2016

- “Rituals and coutumes in the European slave trade on Madagascar in the 17th and 18th centuries”, Afrika Focus, 29 (2), pp. 79-92 Open access: http://www.afrikafocus.eu/file/116

2015

- “De Madagascar à Sumatra : une route négrière peu commune. Le voyage du navire Binnenwijzend de la VOC en 1732”, Afriques, (6) Open access: https://journals.openedition.org/afriques/1805