Expertise

Modern Ethiopian Social History, African History, World History, Eurocentrism, Edward Wilmot Blyden, Intellectual History

Biography

My research interests are in the areas of social, cultural, and intellectual history. I teach graduate and undergraduate courses in African, world, and comparative history. I have published books dealing with modern Ethiopian history, Eurocentrism, and intellectual history of Edward Wilmot Blyden. I am currently working on a book project dealing with the "national question" in Ethiopia. In my research and teaching, I draw from interdisciplinary appraches to the study of history.

Selected Publications

Books:

  • The Making of Modern Ethiopia, 1896-1974 (Red Sea Press , 1995).
  • Hegel and Anti-Semitism (University of South Africa Press, 2008).
  • Hegel and the Third World: The Making of Eurocentrism in World History (Syracuse University Press, 2011).
  • Edward Wilmot Blyden and the Racial Nationalist Imagination (University of Rochester Press, 2012).

Selected Articles:

  • “Modernity, Eurocentrism, and radical politics in Ethiopia, 1961-1991. “African Identities, Vol. 6, No. 4 (November 2008): 345-371. Reprinted in, Ethiopia in Transit: Millennial Quest for Stability and Continuity, 31-58 ( Routledge, 2011).
  • “Ethiopia: The ‘Anomaly’ and ‘Paradox’ of Africa.” Journal of Black Studies, Vol. 26, No. 4 (March 1996): 414-430.
  • “On the Question of Feudalism, Absolutism, and the Bourgeois Revolution.” Review, Fernand Braudel Center, Volume, XIII, Number 1 (Winter 1990): 49-152.

Courses Taught

Undergraduate:

  • Turning Points in Human History: The Modern World
  • Introduction to African History
  • History of East and Central Africa
  • Southern Africa: A History
  • World History
  • History of Slavery in Africa
  • Topics in African History
  • Topics in Comparative History
  • African Diaspora
  • Comparative Slavery
  • Imperialism, Race, and Empire in Modern History

Graduate:

  • Studies in African History
  • Introduction to World History
  • New Themes in the History of Slavery
  • Introduction to Third World History
  • Seminar in African History