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Associate Professor Saliha Belmessous

Associate Professor Saliha Belmessous

Associate Professor

Licence, Université Lyon III-Jean Moulin; MA Université Lyon III and Université de Montréal; Ph.D. Histoire et Civilisations, Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales (Paris).

Arts, Design & Architecture (ADA)
School of Humanities & Languages

I research and teach the global history of empires. I am interested in the political and legal history of colonisation; the imperial experiences of colonised peoples; and the dynamics of cross-cultural encounters -- these are all issues that have an impact upon contemporary problems. My current research reassesses the legal and political worlds in which European and non-European societies interacted and challenges recent evaluations of the history of international law. I am examining, more particularly, the ways in which diplomatic negotiations between European and non-European polities were a matrix for a hybrid law of nations.

I will be Visiting Professor at Corpus Christi College, University of Cambridge in Lent 2023.

From 1 February 2023 to 31 January 2027, I will be British Academy Global Professor at the University of Oxford.

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Phone
9385 2362
E-mail
s.belmessous@unsw.edu.au
Location
333 Morven Brown
  • Books | 2023
    , 2023, The Cambridge History of International Law. Volume III: International Law in Africa, the Americas and Oceania, Belmessous S; Hickford M; Van Hulle I, (eds.), Cambridge University Press, Cambridge
    Books | 2015
    Belmessous S, 2015, Empire by Treaty: Negotiating European Expansion, 1600-1900, Belmessous S, (ed.), Oxford University Press, New York,
    Books | 2014
    , 2014, Empire by Treaty, Belmessous S, (ed.), Oxford University Press,
    Books | 2013
    Belmessous S, 2013, Assimilation and Empire: Uniformity in French and British Colonies, 1541-1954, Oxford University Press, Oxford, UK,
    Books | 2013
    Belmessous S, 2013, Assimilation and Empire, Oxford University Press (OUP),
    Books | 2012
    Belmessous S, 2012, Native Claims: Indigenous Law against Empire, 1500-1920, Belmessous S, (ed.), Oxford University Press, New York,
    Books | 1999
    Belmessous S, 1999, D'un préjugé culturel à un préjugé racial: la politique indigène de la France au Canada, Presses Universitaires du Septentrion, Lille
  • Book Chapters | 2025
    Belmessous S, 2025, 'International Law in the Americas to 1800', in Belmessous S; Hickford M; Van Hulle I (ed.), The Cambridge History of International Law. Volume III: International Law in Africa, the Americas and Oceania, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge
    Book Chapters | 2025
    Belmessous S, 2025, 'Rights in the Seventeenth-Century French Empire', in Fitzmaurice A; Hammersley R (ed.), The Cambridge History of Rights. Volume 2: Rights in the Early-Modern Period, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge
    Book Chapters | 2024
    Belmessous S, 2024, 'Indigenous Rights in Settler Colonies', in The Cambridge History of Rights, Cambridge University Press, pp. 565 - 594,
    Book Chapters | 2024
    Belmessous S, 2024, 'Indigenous Rights in Settler Colonies', in Edelstein D; Pitts J (ed.), The Cambridge History of Rights. Volume 4: The Eighteenth and Nineteenth Centuries, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, pp. 565 - 594,
    Book Chapters | 2023
    Belmessous S, 2023, 'Colonisations', in Colonisations, Le Seuil, pp. 611 - 614,
    Book Chapters | 2023
    Belmessous S, 2023, 'L’Empire au nom de l’assimilation', in Singaravélou P (ed.), Colonisations. Notre histoire, Le Seuil, Paris, pp. 611 - 614,
    Book Chapters | 2020
    Belmessous S, 2020, 'La négociation diplomatique comme matrice d’un droit hybride au XVIIIe siècle', in Schnakenbourg E; Ternat F (ed.), Une diplomatie des lointains: la France face à la mondialisation des rivalités internationales, XVIIe-XVIIIe siècles, Presses Universitaires de Rennes, Rennes, pp. 69 - 88,
    Book Chapters | 2018
    Belmessous S, 2018, 'The Treaty of Waitangi in Historical Context', in Hickford M; Jones C (ed.), Indigenous Peoples and the State: International Perspectives on the Treaty of Waitangi, Routledge, London, pp. 77 - 93,
    Book Chapters | 2015
    Belmessous S, 2015, 'The Paradox of an Empire by Treaty', in Belmessous S (ed.), Empire by Treaty: Negotiating European Expansion, 1600-1900, Oxford University Press, New York, pp. 1 - 18,
    Book Chapters | 2015
    Belmessous S, 2015, 'The Tradition of Treaty-Making in Australian History', in Belmessous S (ed.), Empire by Treaty: Negotiating European Expansion, 1600-1900, Oxford University Press, New York, pp. 186 - 213,
    Book Chapters | 2013
    Belmessous S, 2013, 'Assimilation against Colonialism', in Assimilation and Empire, Oxford University Press, pp. 117 - 204,
    Book Chapters | 2013
    Belmessous S, 2013, 'Assimilation in Early Modern French America', in Assimilation and Empire, Oxford University Press, pp. 13 - 58,
    Book Chapters | 2013
    Belmessous S, 2013, 'Assimilation in the Nineteenth-Century British Empire', in Assimilation and Empire, Oxford University Press, pp. 59 - 116,
    Book Chapters | 2013
    Belmessous S, 2013, 'Introduction', in Assimilation and Empire, Oxford University Press, pp. 1 - 12,
    Book Chapters | 2012
    Belmessous S, 2012, 'The problem of indigenous claim making in colonial history', in Belmessous S (ed.), Native Claims: Indigenous Law against Empire, 1500-1920, Oxford University Press, New York, pp. 3 - 18,
    Book Chapters | 2012
    Belmessous S, 2012, 'Wabanaki versus French and English claims in north-eastern North America c. 1715', in Belmessous S (ed.), Native Claims: Indigenous Law against Empire, 1500-1920, Oxford University Press, New York, pp. 107 - 128,
    Book Chapters | 2010
    Fortescue SC, 2010, 'Conclusion', in Fortescue S (ed.), Russian politics from Lenin to Putin, Palgrave, Basingstoke, pp. 205 - 214,
  • Journal articles | 2022
    Belmessous S, 2022, 'Justice in a New World: Negotiating Legal Intelligibility in British, Iberian, and Indigenous America . By Brian P. Owensby and Richard J. Ross. New York: New York University Press, 2018. Pp. 352. $89.00 (cloth); $30.00 (paper).', The Journal of Modern History, 94, pp. 426 - 427,
    Journal articles | 2022
    Belmessous S, 2022, 'What is a colonial treaty? Questioning the visible and the invisible in European and non-European legal negotiations', Comparative Legal History, 10, pp. 137 - 171,
    Journal articles | 2021
    Belmessous S, 2021, 'Politics and Gender Bias in the Production of Historical Knowledge: Reassessing Muslim Loyalism during the Algerian War of Independence', ±á±ð²õ±èé°ù¾±²õ-°Õ²¹³¾³Ü»å²¹, 56, pp. 211 - 232,
    Journal articles | 2020
    Belmessous S, 2020, 'Commemorating French Colonialism in Australia: On the Lapérouse Monument in Sydney', History Australia, 17, pp. 471 - 488,
    Journal articles | 2020
    Belmessous S, 2020, 'Jennifer Pitts. Boundaries of the International: Law and Empire.', The American Historical Review, 125, pp. 195 - 196,
    Journal articles | 2019
    Belmessous S, 2019, 'Emancipation within Empire: an Algerian Alternative during the Era of Decolonization', History Workshop Journal, 88, pp. 153 - 179,
    Journal articles | 2018
    Belmessous S, 2018, 'Indigenous and European laws of nations in North America to 1763', Trajectories, 29, pp. 2 - 5,
    Journal articles | 2015
    Belmessous S, 2015, 'Nobility Lost: French and Canadian Martial Cultures, Indians, and the End of New France', Journal of American History, 102, pp. 222 - 223,
    Journal articles | 2014
    Vince N, 2014, 'Assimilation and Empire: Uniformity in French and British Colonies, 1541–1954. By SalihaBelmessous. Oxford University Press. 2013. viii + 231pp. £36.00.', History, 99, pp. 693 - 695,
    Journal articles | 2013
    Denial CJ, 2013, 'Native Claims: Indigenous Law against Empire, 1500–1920. Edited by Saliha Belmessous. (Oxford, England: Oxford University Press, 2012. Pp. 278. $74.00.)', The Historian, 75, pp. 423 - 424,
    Journal articles | 2012
    Belmessous S, 2012, 'Greatness and Decadence in French America', Renaissance Studies, 26, pp. 559 - 579,
    Journal articles | 2009
    Belmessous S, 2009, 'Living with Ambiguity: Integrating an African Elite in French and Portuguese Africa, 1930-61', The Journal of Imperial & Commonwealth History, 37, pp. 495 - 497,
    Journal articles | 2006
    Belmessous S, 2006, 'Le monument Lapérouse à Sydney ou l'histoire d'un mythe colonial franco-australien', Outre-Mers. Revue d'Histoire: explorations, colonisations, indépendences, 94, pp. 51 - 68,
    Journal articles | 2005
    Belmessous S, 2005, 'Assimilation and Racialism in Seventeenth and Eighteenth-Century French Colonial Policy', American Historical Review, 110, pp. 322 - 349,
    Journal articles | 2005
    Belmessous S, 2005, 'Assimilation and Racialism in Seventeenth and Eighteenth-Century French Colonial Policy', The American Historical Review, 110, pp. 322 - 349,
    Journal articles | 2004
    Belmessous S, 2004, 'Etre français en Nouvelle-France: Identité française et identité coloniale aux dix-septième et dix-huitième siècles (trans. Being French in New France: French and colonial identity in the 17th and 18th century)', French Historical Studies, 27, pp. 507 - 540,
    Journal articles | 2003
    Belmessous S, 2003, 'John Gascoigne, The Enlightenment and the Origins of European Australia. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2002. xiii + 233 pp. ISBN 0-521-80343-8 (hardback).', Itinerario, 27, pp. 304 - 307,
    Journal articles | 2000
    Belmessous S, 2000, 'La politique indigène de la France au Canada ou les limites du métissage en histoire coloniale', Bulletin du CENA - EHESS, pp. 91 - 103

  • British Academy Global Professorship Programme, 2023-2027. Topic: Legal Encounters at the Origins of International Law.
  • Australian Research Council Discovery Grant, 2015-2022. Topic:
  • Future Fellowship, Australian Research Council, 2011-2015. Topic: Indigenous land claims in historical context
  • Australian Research Council Postdoctoral Fellowship, 2006-2008. Topic: Assimilation and Empire

  • British Academy Global Professorship, University of Oxford, 2023-2027
  • Visiting Professorship, Corpus Christi College, University of Cambridge, Lent 2023
  • Australian Research Council Discovery Grant, 2015-2019
  • 2014 91É«ÇéƬ Dean's Award for Best Monograph for Assimilation and Empire: Uniformity in French and British Colonies, 1541-1954 (Oxford University Press)
  • Visiting Professorship, Université Paris 8, April 2014
  • 2013 New South Wales Premier's General History Prize for Assimilation and Empire: Uniformity in French and British Colonies, 1541-1954 (Oxford University Press)
  • Future Fellowship, Australian Research Council, 2011-2015
  • National and State Libraries Australasian Honorary Fellowship, 2011
  • US Studies Centre Research Grant, 2010
  • University of Sydney Bridging Fellowship, 2009
  • Australian Research Council Postdoctoral Fellowship, 2006-2008
  • Georges Lurcy Fellowship, 1995
  • Lavoisier Program of Excellence Fellowship, 1994
  • Fulbright Fellowship, 1994

Open access publications

'What is a colonial treaty? Questioning the visible and the invisible in European and non-European legal negotiations', Comparative Legal History, 2022,Ìý

±á±ð²õ±èé°ù¾±²õ-°Õ²¹³¾³Ü»å²¹, 2021.

‘Commemorating French Colonialism in Australia: On the Lapérouse Monument in Sydney’, History Australia, 2020.

, History Workshop Journal,Ìý 2019.

'Greatness and Decadence in French America', Renaissance Studies, 2012.

, The American Historical Review, 2005.

(trans. Being French in New France: French Identity and Colonial Identity in the 17th and 18th century), French Historical Studies, 2004.

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Member of the Australian Research Council College of Experts (2019-2021)

Member of the European Science Foundation (ESF) College of Expert Reviewers (2019-2021)

External Reviewer for the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC)

Assessor for the European Research Council
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