Histoires et colonisations: Des récits de la conquête aux héritages postcoloniaux
by Emmanuelle Saada

Colonial legacies dominate many contemporary political debates around the world. How do historians contribute to these debates and to the understanding of colonial situations, past and present? Starting with the observation that modern history is, in part, a product of colonial projects, Emmanuelle Saada’s new book, Histoires et colonisations: Des récits de la conquête aux héritages post-coloniaux (Gallimard, 2026) revisits major historiographical debates and controversies of the past two hundred years by testing them against a wide range of colonial situations, spanning five continents and five centuries. She explores how historians have forged their concept of colonization from very diverse historical situations, including the U.S., Israel, and Ireland. And it shows how engagement with colonial contexts has transformed historians' methods and writing practices.

About the Author

Emmanuelle Saada teaches French and History at Columbia University. Her main field of research is the history of French imperialism in the 19th and 20th centuries, with a specific interest in law, race, and immigration. Her first book Empire's Children: Race, Filiation and Citizenship in the French Colonies was translated into English by the University of Chicago Press in 2012, and her new book, Histoires et Colonisations: Des récits de la conquête aux héritages postcoloniaux, was published by Gallimard in 2026. She is currently working on a project on law and violence in Algeria and France in the nineteenth century.

About the Speakers

Youssef Ben Ismail is a historian of law and empire in the Middle East and North Africa. His research deals with the history of international law, French imperialism, and Ottoman-Arab political thought. He is currently an Assistant Professor of Law, Jurisprudence, and Social Thought at Amherst College. Prior to that, from 2021 to 2024, he was a Postdoctoral Fellow in The Society of Fellows for the Humanities at Columbia University.

Gregory Mann is a professor in the History Department at Columbia University. He is the co-founder, with Emmanuelle Saada, of the Beyond France University Seminar. His most recent book, Africa and France: a History, is currently in press with Cambridge.

Madeleine Dobie teaches French and Comparative Literature at Columbia University. Her research and teaching focus on francophone colonial and postcolonial culture. Her publications include: Foreign Bodies. Gender, Language & Culture in French Orientalism (Stanford, 2001, 2003), Trading Places. Colonization & Slavery in Eighteenth-Century French Culture (Cornell, 2010) and Mayotte Capécia ; une femme des Antilles dans l’espace colonial français (co-written with Myriam Cottias) (2012). She has also coedited A Comparative Literary History of Slavery, Vol. 1 (2024) and journal issues on Maryse Condé and Assia Djebar.

Kavita Sivaramakrishnan is Ronald H. Lauterstein Associate Professor of Sociomedical Sciences at Columbia University. She is a public health historian of South Asia with a focus on the politics of health, medicine and science in the global South. Her early research focused on the politics of ‘indigenous’ Ayurvedic medicine and its reconfiguring in a late colonial context in North India through claims and representations based on language and religion.

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