Dr. Chapdelaine is the co-editor of When Will the Joy Come? Black Women in the Ivory Tower (2023) and the author of The Persistence of Slavery: An Economic History of Child Trafficking in Nigeria (2021). Her article, “Marriage Certificates and Walker Cards: Nigerian Migrant Labor, Wives and Prostitutes in Colonial Fernando Pó,” published in African Economic History, received the 2021 Association for the Study of the Worldwide African Diaspora (ASWAD) Prize.

Her scholarship has appeared in journals including The Journal of West African History, Radical Teacher, and the Bulletin of Ecumenical Theology. She also served as guest editor of the special issue “Retrospectives on Child Slavery in Africa” for Genealogy and has contributed numerous book chapters to edited volumes. Her current work examines the intersections of labor, gender, childhood, and freedom in Africa and the African diaspora, while also exploring practices of Black joy and belonging within higher education.

Bio: Dr. Robin Phylisia Chapdelaine is the Associate Director of the Center for African Studies at Stanford University. Her interdisciplinary research explores human trafficking, child slavery, equity in higher education, and Black joy practices.