From 3 to 5 June 2026, the ERC Starting Grant Project CATTLEFRONTIERS organised the international workshop 'Cattle Commodifation in Global History: Capitalism, Science and Empire'.

We have a new blog post up on our website where team member Paulo Matos talks about some of his experiences conducting fieldwork in Angola earlier this year: cattlefrontiers.eu/paulo-matos-...

On 1 April 2026 we are very happy to welcome Narusa Yamato (Stanford University) who will be presenting on "An Archipelago of Cows: A History of the Japanese Dairy Industry, 1854-1945". For more information: cattlefrontiers.eu/narusa-yamat...

This Thursday Samuël Coghe will be giving a lecture on "Anthrax Management at the Cattle Frontier: Local Knowledge, Imperial Technopolitics and Transimperial Exchanges in Colonial Madagascar" at the Leuven Centre for Health Humanities. More information: ghum.kuleuven.be/LCHH/calenda...

Tomorrow, February 10, Samuël Coghe will be presenting at the Socialist Medicine Seminar at the Humboldt University of Berlin about 'The Ecological Limits of the Cattle Frontier: Anthrax and Transimperial Technopolitics in Colonial Madagascar, 1890s-1960". socialistmedicine.com/samuel-coghe...

Tomorrow, Elene Vernaeve and Samuël Coghe will present the CATTLEFRONTIERS project at the Internationalised Politics Colloquium at the University of Bremen. For more information: www.uni-bremen.de/institut-fue...

Last week Elene Vernaeve and Zarah Cleve attended the 4th CRN PhD Days, presenting on "Cattle, companies and the countryside: Environmental impact of the cattle industry in 20th century Katanga" and "Controlling Flies and Managing Landscapes: Veterinary Science and Tsetse in Katanga" respectively.

Last week Samuël Coghe and Elene Vernaeve attended the Resources in Africa conference in Ghent, presenting on 'The making and the unmaking of the cattle frontier in Madagascar, 1870s-1970s' and 'Indigenous cattle breeds in Katanga in/during the 19th and early 20th century' respectively.

For the final lecture in our Livestock Histories series we look forward to welcoming William Gervase Clarence-Smith next Tuesday, who will be speaking about 'Mules and Donkeys in Global History: Neglected Animal Technologies'. To register visit our website: cattlefrontiers.eu/william-gerv...

We are very happy to announce the first International Workshop of the CATTLEFRONTIERS Project, Cattle Commodification in Global History: Capitalism, Science and Empire. The workshop will be taking place 3-5 June 2026 in Ghent, Belgium.

Tomorrow Samuël Coghe and Elene Vernaeve will be attending and presenting their research at the International Conference: Resources in Africa in Ghent.

Next Tuesday for our Livestock Histories Lecture Series we welcome Oscar Broughton who will be speaking on 'Brazilian Beef: A National Cuisine in a Transimperial Setting 1880-1980'. For more information and to register visit our website: cattlefrontiers.eu/oscar-brough...

Next Tuesday will be the third lecture of our Livestock Histories Lecture Series! Helen Cowie (University of York) will be talking about Silk of the Andes: Acclimatising Alpacas in the British Empire. For more information and to register visit our website: cattlefrontiers.eu/helen-cowie-...

Very happy to present my research in Leipzig at the GlobeColloquium, this Wednesday!

Next Tuesday will be the second lecture of our Livestock Histories Lecture Series! Clémence Gadenne-Rosfelder (EHESS, Paris) will be talking about Agricultural Modernisation in Brittany (France): Gender, work, and technology perspectives in pig farming specialisation (1945-1980s).

We are very happy to announce our new online lecture series 'Livestock Histories: Regional and Global Perspectives'. The first lecture will be next week, where Steven Van Wolputte will be talking about cattle, microbes and veterinarians as entangled life forms in the history of Northern Namibia.

Brazzaville, Summer 2025: The ruins of "Tannaf" (Société de Tannerie de l'Afrique Équatoriale française), a tannery held by M. Guelfman in 1957 with no trace of lasting success. The company gave its name to a whole area in Brazzaville close to river Djoué. (Photo by team member Louise Barré.)

Team member Zarah Cleve just spent two weeks in Rwanda. One important stop on her trip was the King's Palace in Nyanza, where a small herd of Inyambo cattle, descended from the king's herd, can be found. These cows are known for their horns and played an important role in royal ceremonies.

Je me sens très honoré de pouvoir présenter mes recherches sur l'élevage bovin, demain à Antananarivo, dans un colloque inédit sur l'histoire économique de Madagascar.

We have a new blog post up on our website where team member Paulo Matos talks about his recent fieldwork in Angola: cattlefrontiers.eu/paulo-matos-...

Tomorrow, Samuël Coghe, PI of the CATTLEFRONTIERS project will be talking about cattle breeding in colonial and early postcolonial Madagascar at the History of Medicine, Science & Anthropocene Research Colloquium at the University of Zürich.

In April, one of our PhD students, Elene Vernaeve, participated in a spring school on fieldwork, organised by the Conflict & Development department of Ghent University. It was a week were PhD students with different academic backgrounds discussed and reflect on the complexities of fieldwork.

Cattlefrontiers team member Paulo Matos just spent a month in Angola doing fieldwork. His project examines the Portuguese colonial policies towards pastoralist populations in Angola and Mozambique. This picture was taken in the surroundings of Humbe, in a kraal of a Nkumbi individual. (1/3)

We are happy to announce that @samuelcoghe.bsky.social will be presenting the CATTLEFRONTIERS ERC project at the Institute of Advanced Studies in Durham on 17 March durham.ac.uk/research/ins... @emilywebz.bsky.social

Welcome to the CATTLEFRONTIERS Bluesky account! This project explores how European colonialism, global capitalism and multiple forms of local agency transformed cattle economies in Southern and Central Africa during the colonial and early postcolonial period.