Postdoctoral Researcher

Attached to sub-project A02 (‘Past Futures: Micro-histories of rural development in the Kavango-Zambezi Transfrontier Conservation Area’) within Phase 2 of the DFG-funded CRC-228, ‘Future Rural Africa’

Sub-project A02, ‘Past Futures: Micro-histories of rural development in the Kavango-Zambezi Transfrontier Conservation Area’, within Phase 2 of the DFG-funded CRC-228, ‘Future Rural Africa’

PhD dissertation title: "Past Futures: Histories of Development in the Kilombero Valley, Tanzania"

• 2018–2022, PhD, Afrikanistik, University of Cologne [0.6, magna cum laude]
• 2011–12, MSc African Studies, University of Oxford
• 2007–11, BA Swahili & History, School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS), University of London [First Class]

• 2023. 'Maono ya Bonde la Kilombero: Historia za Maendeleo Yake', UTAFITI: Journal of African Perspectives 18:2 (2023), 160–177. [Open Access]
• 2022. Coercion and Dissent: Sleeping Sickness 'Concentrations' and the Politics of Colonial Authority in Ulanga, Tanganyika, The Journal of African History 63:1, 37–54.
• 2021. "Off to Sugar Valley": the Kilombero Settlement Scheme and "Nyerere's People", 1959–69, Journal of Eastern African Studies 15:3, 505–526.
• 2016. The lost library [English Club,Tanzania], London Library Magazine 31, 24–26.

• November 2023. A Future Made: UNTAG in Namibia. Paper presented at the workshop, ‘Past Futures: New Histories from Southern Africa’ at the University of Warwick, UK.

• November 2023. Dispatched and Displaced: Reconstructing a Material and Social Archive through Early Photographic Postcards of Zanzibar. Paper presented at the 'BARAZA: Swahili Studies Conference 2023' at the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS, University of London).

• June 2023. A Future Made: UNTAG in Namibia. What lessons remain unlearned from 'one of the proudest chapters of our Organization's history'? Paper presented to the Academic Council of the United Nations (ACUNS) 2023 Annual Meeting 'Making, Keeping, and Sustaining Peace' as part of the panel, 'UN Peace Operations: Function, Dysfunction, and Lessons'.

• June 2023. ‘The future. Now, what was that…?’ Reflections on historiographical approaches and challenges to writing histories of development as ‘future making’ practices. Paper presented at the European Conference on African Studies (ECAS) Conference at the University of Cologne as part of the panel, 'Past futures: new approaches to the history of development as 'future-making' in Africa'.

• June 2023. Co-convenor of the two-session panel, 'Past futures: new approaches to the history of development as 'future-making' in Africa' at the European Conference on African Studies (ECAS) Conference at the University of Cologne.

• November 2022. Dispatched and Displaced: Reconstructing a Material and Social Archive through Early Photographic Postcards of Zanzibar. Paper presented at the interdisciplinary workshop ‘From Archival Pasts Towards Archival Futures: Epistemologies, Decolonization, (Dis-)Placement’ at the University of Ghana, Accra.

• March 2022. Past Futures: Histories of Development in the Kilombero Valley. Paper presented to the American Society of Environment History conference held in Eugene, Oregon, USA as part of the panel, 'Disaster and Recovery: New Themes in Eastern African History', convened by Prof James C. McCann.

• March 2022. Introduction to ‘Past Futures’ as an emerging environmental history project. Contribution to Workshop on the Environmental History of the Kavango-Zambezi Transboundary Conservation Area, held in Namibia at the University of Namibia, Katima Mulilo Campus.

• February 2022. Past Futures: Histories of rural development in KAZA Transfrontier Conservation Area. Contribution to Kick-off Workshop for the ERC project ‘Rewilding the Anthropocene’ [rewilding.de] held at University of Cologne, Germany.

• November 2021. Guest lecture: Capitalism, Socialism or African Socialism? Struggles over Economic Growth. Delivered to second-year history undergraduates. University of Warwick, UK.

• November 2021. Researching the history of development in Tanzania: oral histories, fieldwork and the colonial archive. Graduate training workshop, ‘Research in Practice: East Africa’. Global History Africa, University of Warwick, UK.

• November 2021. Britannia waived the rules: disillusionment, nostalgia, and misremembered roles among colonial officers after empire. Paper presented to The Cambridge History of Memory and Emotions Workshop. University of Cambridge, UK.

• November 2020. ‘Off to Sugar Valley’: the Kilombero Settlement Scheme and ‘Nyerere's People’, 1959–69. University of Warwick Online Webinar Series.

• June 2019. Past Futures: a developmental history of the Kilombero Valley, Tanzania. Conference paper presented at the European Conference of African Studies (ECAS), Edinburgh, UK.

21–22 September 2022. Workshop: Archival and Historical Methods Training in Theory and Practice. Two-day training workshop run in Windhoek, Namibia as part of the annual CRC Summer School at the University of Namibia and the National Archives of Namibia.

BIEA (British Institute in Eastern Africa) ‘Bringing Research Home’ dissemination grant awarded in 2022 to return to sites of my doctoral research in the Kilombero Valley, Tanzania. Four presentations events (Mzumbe University, Morogoro; Sonjo; Mbingu; and Itete) were conducted in October 2022 to share findings, present material resources to remain in situ, and continue discussions on future research potential. €2700.