Dr. Paulien Broens

Paulien Broens (°1999) graduated summa cum laude with a Masters in African Studies at the University of Ghent, Belgium, in 2019. After completing her first research project in Shinyanga, Northern-Tanzania, on female authorities, she continued her studies at the School of Oriental and African Studies, London, with a Research Masters in Social Anthropology. She went on to graduate with distinction, working on a historical study of the Iya Oba, or ‘Queen Mothers’, in Yoruba, Southwestern Nigeria. 

Since 2021, Paulien conducted her doctoral research in the research group 'Legal Connectivities and Colonial Cultures in Africa' at the Max Planck Institute for Legal History and Legal Theory, and in the Department of Roman Law and Legal History at the KU Leuven. She was a visiting fellow at the National University of Singapore. On 18 December 2024 Paulien defended her PhD with title “The Only ‘Man’ Among Them Was the Queen”. Female Legal Authorities and Colonialism in Asante, 1880 – 1940 under supervision of Prof. dr. Inge Van Hulle.

Currently Dr. Paulien Broens is research coordinator at the Research Centre for Gender, Diversity and Intersectionality at VUB.