Rossila Goussanou is a graduate architect (ENSA Nantes) and has a PhD in Anthropology. Her doctoral thesis entitled "Monumentalizing the memories of the Atlantic slave trade and slavery" (2020) focuses on the political, aesthetic, cultural, social and spatial issues of the architecture of memory. Her analysis of memorial sites dedicated to the slave trade, particularly in Benin, leads her to question the phenomena of resilience to collective trauma, the processes of rewriting history, the characteristics of collective and symbolic spaces, and the representations of history. This research explores the limits of the notions of "heritage" and "monumentalization" on African territory, in the light of vernacular modes of conservation and expression of the past.
In parallel, Rossila is involved in several projects concerning the valorization of African cultures, notably exhibitions, for example by curating the exhibition "Afrocity, Urbanités enchantées" at ENSA Nantes (France, 2021), the scenography of the exhibition "Women and Slavery" at the CCRI John Smith in Ouidah (Benin, 2021), the museographic and scenographic study of the "Museum of Women" in Foto-Dschang (Cameroon, 2021) and the prefiguration study of the exhibition "On the Road of the Chieftaincies of Cameroon" at the Musée du Quai Branly (France, 2022).
Qualified in "Architecture, applied arts, plastic arts" (CNU 18), in "Biological anthropology, ethnology" (CNU 20) and in "Spatial planning, urbanism" (CNU 24), Rossila is also a visiting professor at the École Nationale Supérieure d'Architecture de Nantes since 2016 and at the École Nationale Supérieure d'Architecture de Maurice since 2021.