Interviewer
Assistant Professor of African History at Vanderbilt University, Moses Ochonu completed his Ph.D at the University of Michigan in 2004. He is currently a fellow of the American Council of Learned Societies (ACLS) and is completing a book titled “Colonial Meltdown: Northern Nigeria in the Great Depression”. His research interests are in African economic and social history, colonialism and the colonial encounter, and colonial/postcolonial ethno-religious politics. His articles have appeared in the Journal of Colonialism and Colonial History, African Economic History, and Gefame.
Guest
A renowned African scholar and historian, Mamadou Diouf is the Director of Columbia University's Institute for African Studies at the School of International and Public Affairs. Diouf is also the Leitner Family Professor of African Studies in the Departments of Middle East and Asian Languages and Cultures (MEALAC) and History. He holds a Ph.D. from the University of Paris-Sorbonne (France). Before joining the faculty at Columbia University, Mamadou Diouf was Charles D. Moody Jr. Collegiate Professor of African History and African American Studies at the University of Michigan (Ann Arbor) Department of History and Center of AfroAmerican and African Studies (2000-2007). He was also previously Head of the Research, Information, and Documentation Department of the Council for the Development of Social Science Research in Africa (CODESRIA) and also a faculty member of the History Department of Cheikh Anta Diop University in Dakar, Senegal.
His research interests include urban, political, social and intellectual history in colonial and postcolonial Africa. His most recent books are La Construction de l’Etat au Sénégal (with M. C. Diop & D. Cruise O’Brien), [2002] and Histoire du Sénégal: Le Modèle Islamo-Wolof et ses Périphéries [2001]. He is the author, editor and co-author of several other works including Histoires et Identités dans la Caraïbe. Trajectoires Plurielles, edited with Ulbe Bosma) [2004] ; Les Jeunes, Hantise de l’espace public dans les sociétés du sud ? Edited with R. Collignon, Autrepart 18, 2001. Les figures du politique. Des pouvoirs hérités aux pouvoirs élus, Edited with M. C. Diop; [1999] ; L'Historiographie indienne en débat. Sur le nationalisme, le colonialisme et les sociétés postcoloniales (edited by) [1999] ; Academic Freedom and Social Responsability of the Intellectuals in Africa, edited with Mahmood Mamdani, [1994]; Le Sénégal sous Abdou Diouf (with M.C. Diop) [1990] ; La Kajoor au XIXe siècle : Pouvoir Ceddo et Conquête Coloniale [1990].
He is also a member of the editorial board of several professional journals including the Journal of African History (Cambridge), Psychopathologie Africaine (Dakar), la vie des idées.fr (Paris), co-editor (with Peter Geschiere) of the book series, Histoires du Sud/Histories of the South, Karthala, Paris, France.
He is currently editing two books, Rhythms of the Atlantic World (with Ifeoma Nwanko), [Univesity of Michigan Press] and New Perspectives on Islam in Senegal: Conversion, Migration, Wealth, Power and Femininity(with Mara Leichtman), [Palgrave].
Respondents
Cary Fraser, Associate Professor, teaches the history and politics of race in 20th Century America, the history of American Foreign Policy, the African Diaspora in the Atlantic World, and Caribbean history at the Pennsylvania State University. His first book was a study of American policy towards the decolonization of the British Caribbean and the second book on which he is working explores the dynamic of race in American domestic and foreign policies in the 20th Century. He received his BA in History from the University of Guyana, the MSc in International Relations from the University of the West Indies, and the Ph.D. in International History and Politics from the Graduate Institute of International Studies at the University of Geneva. His essays and articles have been published in Canada, the Caribbean, the United Kingdom, and the USA. He has held visiting fellowships at Cornell, the University of Maryland, Princeton, and the University of Rochester, and his research has been funded by the Social Science Research Council, the MacArthur Foundation, and the Rockefeller Archives, among others.
Assistant Professor at Barnard College, Abosede George specializes in African history, women’s history, urban history of Africa, and the history of childhood in Africa. She received her Ph.D from Stanford University in 2006. Her article “Feminist Activism and Class Politics: The Example of the Lagos Girl Hawker Project” is forthcoming Women’s Studies Quarterly 35 (2007). She is currently working on a book project about the history of juvenile justice in 20th-century Lagos, Nigeria.