Good Shepherd School. Abomey, Benin
Research
My manuscript in progress, Education for All: Decolonization, Religion, and Development in Francophone West Africa analyzes the educational debates surrounding the rapid expansion of Catholic schools in West Africa, as well as the experiences of those who worked at and attended the schools. It provides the first account of the role missionaries, local clergy, UNESCO, and international and regional Catholic organizations played in shaping one of the most contentious domains of social policy—education—in the late colonial and early postcolonial period. I draw on never before used sources from over twenty official and unofficial archives in Senegal, Benin, France and Italy, as well as over 60 interviews with former students.
Education for All contributes to our understanding of the continuities and ruptures between the colonial and postcolonial period and the formation of new elites. A regional study of the global movement towards universal education, this work analyzes debates about changing the language and content of instruction, the role of religion in schooling, and the relationship between development and education. In Education for All, I argue that between the late colonial and early postcolonial period, education went from being a privileged vector for development to the primary means for French culture to be disseminated in West Africa. Struggles to graft African sovereignty onto French roots are not unique to education, but are rather illustrative of larger issues in West Africa.
Peer-Reviewed Publications
“Triangulating Between the Church, State, and Postcolony: Coopérants in Independent West Africa” Cahiers d’Etudes africaines. Forthcoming. March 2016.
Fellowships and Awards
2015 Postdoctoral Fellow, International Humanities, Brown University
2015 Bursary, Association for Computers and Humanities
2014 Fulbright-Hays Fellowship for Advanced Yoruba Group Projects Abroad (YGPA). Ibadan, Nigeria.
2013-2015 MacCracken Fellowship, New York University, NY.
2012-2013 Jeanne Marandon Fellowship for Dissertation Research, Société des Professeurs Français et Francophones d’Amérique (SPFFA).
2012-2013 Doctoral Fellow, Remarque Institute. Paris, France.
2012-2013 Pensionnaire Étrangère, École Normale Supérieure. Paris, France.
2012 Summer Travel Award, History Department, New York University, NY.
2009-2012 MacCracken Fellowship, New York University, NY.
2006 Phi Beta Kappa, Vassar College, NY.
My manuscript in progress, Education for All: Decolonization, Religion, and Development in Francophone West Africa analyzes the educational debates surrounding the rapid expansion of Catholic schools in West Africa, as well as the experiences of those who worked at and attended the schools. It provides the first account of the role missionaries, local clergy, UNESCO, and international and regional Catholic organizations played in shaping one of the most contentious domains of social policy—education—in the late colonial and early postcolonial period. I draw on never before used sources from over twenty official and unofficial archives in Senegal, Benin, France and Italy, as well as over 60 interviews with former students.
Education for All contributes to our understanding of the continuities and ruptures between the colonial and postcolonial period and the formation of new elites. A regional study of the global movement towards universal education, this work analyzes debates about changing the language and content of instruction, the role of religion in schooling, and the relationship between development and education. In Education for All, I argue that between the late colonial and early postcolonial period, education went from being a privileged vector for development to the primary means for French culture to be disseminated in West Africa. Struggles to graft African sovereignty onto French roots are not unique to education, but are rather illustrative of larger issues in West Africa.
Peer-Reviewed Publications
“Triangulating Between the Church, State, and Postcolony: Coopérants in Independent West Africa” Cahiers d’Etudes africaines. Forthcoming. March 2016.
Fellowships and Awards
2015 Postdoctoral Fellow, International Humanities, Brown University
2015 Bursary, Association for Computers and Humanities
2014 Fulbright-Hays Fellowship for Advanced Yoruba Group Projects Abroad (YGPA). Ibadan, Nigeria.
2013-2015 MacCracken Fellowship, New York University, NY.
2012-2013 Jeanne Marandon Fellowship for Dissertation Research, Société des Professeurs Français et Francophones d’Amérique (SPFFA).
2012-2013 Doctoral Fellow, Remarque Institute. Paris, France.
2012-2013 Pensionnaire Étrangère, École Normale Supérieure. Paris, France.
2012 Summer Travel Award, History Department, New York University, NY.
2009-2012 MacCracken Fellowship, New York University, NY.
2006 Phi Beta Kappa, Vassar College, NY.
