» Message from the President
» Mission Statement
» Accreditation
» Virtual Tour
» Map and Directions
Framingham State History Professor Richard Allen has been awarded a prestigious fellowship from the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) that will allow him to compile the first comprehensive history of European slave trade in the Indian Ocean.
The NEH received 1,339 fellowship applications last year, of which just 80 were funded. Dr. Allen will receive more than $50,000 to conduct research in France for about a month this spring and then complete a book-length manuscript on the topic titled, European Slave Trade in the Indian Ocean, 1500-1850.
“This is something I’ve been working on for at least 15 years now,” Allen said. “I’ve reached the point where I’m ready to pull it all together.”
Allen has previously had numerous articles that deal with slave trading in the Indian Ocean published in various books and journals including the Journal of World History, the Journal of African History and Asian Studies Review. In addition, he is an associate editor for the Encyclopedia of Global Human Migration, and a special consultant to the Truth and Justice Commission, which was established by the National Assembly to investigate the legacy of slavery and indentured labor in Mauritius.
Allen hopes to complete his comprehensive manuscript by August 31, when the fellowship funding ends. He has already drafted two chapters and is currently working on a third. Later this year he will spend four or five weeks in Paris, Bordeaux and other areas of France performing archival research on the subject.
“Once the manuscript is published, it will find an audience that encompasses professional historians, students and the general public,” Allen said. The National Endowment for the Humanities is an independent federal agency that supports research and learning in history, literature, philosophy, and other areas of the humanities by funding peer-reviewed proposals from around the nation.
The National Endowment for the Humanities is an independent federal agency that supports research and learning in history, literature, philosophy, and other areas of the humanities by funding peer-reviewed proposals from around the nation.
