On 1 November 2012 Ulbe Bosma, senior researcher at the International Institute of Social History (IISH) in Amsterdam, is also appointed professor of 'International Comparative Social History' at the Free University of Amsterdam.
The endowed chair covers empirical research into labour and labour relations, from a comparative social historical and geographical perspective. This is in line with the focus of the IISH research department which is centered around Global Labour History, the development of labour relations in world economy in the last 500 years.
Ulbe Bosma (1962) published many articles and a number of edited volumes and monographs on colonial history, global labour migration and commodity production. His monograph on the emergence of industrial sugar plantations in India and Java over the past 250 years (Cambridge University Press) is forthcoming.
An overview of Bosma's publications can be found on this website: socialhistory.org/en/staff/ulbe-bosma.