Andrew Bellisari
- Assistant Professor // History
- Assistant Professor // Cornerstone
Research Focus
Modern France and Europe, Colonialism and Decolonization, Southeast Asia (Vietnam), North Africa (Algeria), Military History
Office and Contact
Dr. Andrew Bellisari is an Assistant Professor in the Department of History. Prior to joining the faculty at Purdue, he was an assistant professor and founding faculty member at Fulbright University Vietnam in Ho Chi Minh City and a Vietnam Program Fellow at the Harvard Kennedy School.
Specializing in the history of modern France and its colonial empire, Dr. Bellisari’s work addresses questions related to warfare, state- and nation-building, and civil society. Dr. Bellisari’s research explores the political, social, and cultural dimensions of decolonization, particularly in French North Africa and French Indochina.
Dr. Bellisari’s current book project analyzes the everyday logistics of decolonization to understand how wars end and transfers of power operate. Scholars and policymakers have long studied the Algerian War of Independence (1954-1962) for insights into insurgency and counter-insurgency. This book moves beyond this conventional focus by deeply considering the nuts-and-bolts processes of colonial disentanglement that occurred after the war—the tireless work of commissions and committees to keep the peace, transfer infrastructure, and sort through colonial-era patrimony to ensure a transition to independence that was once unthinkable to both the French and the Algerians. In short, the book asks: how do countries turn independence on paper into independence in practice?
Dr. Bellisari’s next project examines the complex networks of French colonial subjects from across the Maghreb, Sub-Saharan Africa, and Indochina itself who fought in the French Far East Expeditionary Corps against the Democratic Republic of Vietnam during the First Indochina War (1946-1954).
Dr. Bellisari’s research and writing have been featured in The Journal of Contemporary History, The Journal of North African Studies, Origins: Current Events in Historical Perspective, and Kerning Cultures.
Dr. Bellisari holds a B.A. in History and French from Rutgers University and an M.A. and Ph.D. in History from Harvard University. His research has been supported by grants from the National Endowment for the Humanities, the Krupp Foundation, and the Weatherhead Center for International Affairs.
Dr. Bellisari is currently accepting graduate students interested in researching the history of modern France or its colonial empire. He is also willing to advise students and projects related to colonialism, decolonization, and the social and cultural dimensions of armed conflict.