Yacine Benhalima is French-Moroccan of Tahitian descent. He is a PhD candidate in history at the University of French Polynesia and Victoria University of Wellington. His current research focuses on the Free French in the Pacific during the Second World War, with an emphasis on Tahiti and French Polynesia. He graduated with a double BA in history and modern literature from Paris-Est Créteil University in 2018 and with a Masters in history from École des hautes études en sciences sociales (EHESS) in 2020, writing a master’s thesis on the Pacific Battalion which was later published (Le Bataillon du Pacifique 1940-1946, L’Harmattan, 2021).