Profile

I am a historian with particular interests in twentieth-century West Africa, and commitments to collaborative, interdisciplinary, and impactful research. I joined the Bristol History Department in February 2023, having previously worked in interdisciplinary African Studies at the University of Birmingham for almost twenty years. Various aspects of my research and impact work have been funded by the Nuffield Foundation, the British Academy, the Leverhulme Trust, and the AHRC. 

My first book focused on the connections between the expansion of formal schooling and mass literacy, new forms of political mobilisation, and competing ideas about citizenship in the Ghana-Togo borderlands in the era of decolonisation and new nationhood. These interests were further developed in a collaborative book project with Prof Wilson Yayoh (University of Cape Coast, Ghana) which focused on print cultures in the Ghana-Togo borderlands, and particularly on an Eʋe-language newspaper titled Ablɔɖe Safui (the Key to Freedom). Most recently, I have worked on histories of gender activism in postcolonial Ghana. Alongside Prof Akosua Adomako Ampofo (Institute of African Studies, Ghana), I was joint lead researcher and co-producer of the film When Women Speak (directed by Aseye Tamakloe). My current research focuses on the politics of family law reform in postcolonial Ghana.

Key words

Geographical: Africa - particularly Ghana, Togo, and their Eʋe-speaking borderland.

Thematic: mass literacy, formal schooling, print cultures, political thought and mobilisation, decolonisation, nationalism, citizenship, gender activism, family law reform.

Chronological: modern and contemporary periods (especially twentieth century).

Methodological: oral history, African-authored sources, public/private archives, court records and legal documents, interdisciplinary approaches.