معرفی
Lorelle Semley is Professor of History at the College of the Holy Cross, where she teaches courses in African history, gender history, and the African diaspora. She serves as Managing Editor of History in Africa, a flagship journal of the African Studies Association.
Her research examines the intersections of race, gender, and colonialism in the Atlantic world, with specialized focus on citizenship formation in France's empire and historical Black communities in metropolitan France. Current work investigates African and Antillean contributions to Bordeaux's development through labor, artistry, and transnational networks.
Her scholarly impact is recognized through significant honors:
- Award for monograph To Be Free and French: Citizenship in France’s Atlantic Empire
- ACLS Fellowship (2021) supporting her RITM research
- NEH Fellowship (2022) for the "Bordeaux, Forgotten Black Metropolis" project
These fellowships enable critical analysis of how enslaved and free Black populations shaped French urban identity, challenging conventional narratives of Atlantic history while informing contemporary immigration discourse through archival recovery of artisan, student, and familial networks in Bordeaux.
