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Karin Pallaver

Associate professor, University of Bologna

karin.pallaver@unibo.it

Personal page

Research interests: Monetary history, colonialism in East Africa

My research focuses on the economic and social history of East Africa, and on Kenya and Tanzania more specifically. I am particularly interested in understanding the impact of colonial rule on African societies and economies. My main research topics are the history of money and currency, and especially the transition from precolonial to colonial currencies, and the history of labour relations, with a specific focus on female labour.

Country Cases

Mauritius and Zanzibar
Ellen Hillbom Lund University
Karin Pallaver University of Bologna

The island states along the coast of Africa commonly receive limited attention in the African economic history literature. Colonial territories such as Mauritius and Zanzibar have had, from a mainland perspective, “atypical” population compositions and economic characteristics. Nevertheless, their long histories as trading posts and dependency on tropical plantation sectors open up for interesting case studies as well as comparisons with similar economies outside of Africa.

Blog Posts

Collecting Archival Material: a Conversation with Historian Karin Pallaver
Maria Mwaipopo Fibaek Lund University
Karin Pallaver University of Bologna
Maria Mwaipopo Fibæk talks to Karin Pallaver, a member of AFLIT and an Associate Professor of African History in the Department of History and Cultures at the University of Bologna. Karin’s research draws on a multitude of historical sources of which many were collected at national archives in United Kingdom and East Africa and the […]