Tracy Lopes, PhD
Meet the Contributor
Area(s) of Atlantic Study: Angola
Academic Background
Dr. Tracy Lopes has a PhD in History from York University, with a major in African History and minors in African Diaspora and Legal History. Her dissertation examined prisons and slavery in nineteenth-century Luanda, Angola. She recently completed a postdoctoral fellowship at the University of Toronto Scarborough, where her research focused on the enslavement and transportation of serviçais (indentured workers) from Angola to São Tomé and Príncipe. This project led to the creation of ServiçaisRegisters.org, a digital database documenting more than 18,000 serviçais. Her publications have appeared in the Canadian Journal of African Studies, Portuguese Studies Review, and Afro-Ásia. Currently, she is a research assistant on the Ethnic Media in Canada at a Crossroads project, conducting content analysis of Portuguese-language media.
Research Interests
Beyond her dissertation, Dr. Lopes is interested in research relating to:
Labour
Prisons
Crime
Leisure
Why Written in the Waves?
“Growing up Luso-Canadian, I always felt a pull toward the Atlantic world. Summers spent travelling between Canada and Portugal sparked an early interest in Portuguese history, which eventually led me to confront Portugal’s role in African history, particularly the Atlantic slave trade and slavery. My research focuses on these darker chapters, seeking to recover the voices of enslaved people whose experiences have often been marginalized in the historical record. I appreciate that Written in the Waves celebrates the Atlantic world and marginalized voices while bringing women together. I am excited to learn more about the work of the contributors and about different forms of expression, including storytelling, memory, and other creative approaches.”
Contact Tracy: