Prof.dr. Corinne Hofman digs up the roots of transatlantic slavery

EUROTAST is a Marie Curie Initial Training Network, whose primary objective is to train a new generation of researchers while contributing to a better understanding of the history of the transatlantic slave trade and its legacies today. Funded by the European Union under the Seventh Framework Programme, the network offers Fellowships to 13 early stage and two experienced researchers to conduct research on various aspects of the transatlantic slave trade.

EUROTAST consists of 10 academic partners and 1 industrial partner and involves leading researchers from a wide range of disciplines, including some that are not traditionally associated with slave trade research. By bringing in experts from these various fields, the network hopes to contribute new data that will add to our knowledge of how the slave trade operated and how it shaped the population history of an entire continent. Working together on a common theme, a team of historians, archaeologists, sociologists and geneticists will examine various aspects of the slave trade that will increase our understanding of this traumatic period in history and, thus, help people to come to terms with it.

Leiden University’s Faculty of Archaeology is one of EUROTAST’s 11 main partners, and prof.dr. Corinne Hofman has joined the network to research the roots of transatlantic slavery from a Caribbean point of view.