Solofo Randrianja | |
|---|---|
| Citizenship | Madagascar |
| Academic background | |
| Alma mater | Paris Diderot University |
| Thesis | Le Parti Communiste (Section Française de l'Internationale Communiste) de la Région de Madagascar, 1936-39, genèse, développement et décomposition (2004) |
| Doctoral advisor | Françoise Raison-Jourde |
| Other advisors | Catherine Coquery-Vidrovitch, Michelle Perrot |
| Academic work | |
| Discipline | Historian |
| Sub-discipline | History of Madagascar |
Solofo Randrianja is a Malagasy scholar and historian of Madagascar. He is currently a professor at University of Toamasina and,with Stephen Ellis,wrote Madagascar:A Short History,a foundational reference work for the field.
Randrianja was raised in Madagascar,where his father was a political organizer. [1]
Randrianja earned a Ph.D. and habilitation from the Denis Diderot University of Paris VII. During political unrest in Madagascar,Randrianja was a potential target due to his advocacy of democracy. He and his family fled to Chicago. [2]
With Stephen Ellis,Randrianja wrote Madagascar:A Short History,considered by the Africanist academic community to be a critical reference work in Malagasy history. [3] [4] In fact,the only prior history of Madagascar written in English was published in 1995 by British diplomat Mervyn Brown. [5] During this time,he was also awarded a fellowship at the African Studies Centre Leiden. [6] Following the 2009 Malagasy coup d'état,Randrianja edited and published a collection of viewpoints and analyses on the incident,Madagascar,le coup d'État de mars 2009. [7] Later in the 2010s,Randrianja served as a fellow at the Nantes Institute for Advanced Study [8] and at the Taiwan Foundation for Democracy. [9]
Randrianja has been interviewed as a political expert on contemporary Madagascar politics,particularly in light of the contentious 2023 Malagasy presidential election. [10] [11]
He has also served as co-editor-in-chief of the journal Identity,Culture,and Politics:an Afro-Asian Dialogue (French:Identité,culture et politique :un dialogue afro-asiatique). [12]