LEADR is a joint endeavor between the Departments of History and Anthropology. The lab works with undergraduate classes on digital literacy and projects as well as partnering with faculty projects. To learn more about LEADR, visit their website at leadr.msu.edu
The African Studies center is a division of International Studies and Programs. The Center works to place Africa in a global context and includes faculty from 46 departments. To learn more about the African Studies Center, visit their website at africa.isp.msu.edu
Henry Fagan is a PhD candidate in African History at Michigan State University. The focus of his research is the KwaZulu-Natal region (KZN) of South Africa and its surrounds, c. 1840-1870. He is examining the Zulu kingdom during the reign of king Mpande kaSenzangakhona and aim to analyze the complex interplay of social and political factors – both within the Zulu kingdom and exerted externally by Dutch and British settlers – that shaped it. He holds an MA degree in history which he obtained at the University of Cape Town (UCT). His dissertation unpacked the historiographical forces that shaped the dominant strands of KZN’s history. He also has experience working in digital archiving via his association with the Five-Hundred Year Archive, a project based at UCT. He plans to incorporate what he has learned from these experiences into his forthcoming work.
Emmanuel is a doctoral candidate in African History at Michigan State University. He has research interests in the interconnection between colonial and post-colonial transportation infrastructure, urbanization, labor mobility, race, ethnicity, gender, and Pan-Africanism in West Africa. His proposed research investigates how Ghana’s colonial and post-colonial railway construction and development shaped African wage labor migration, settlements, the construction of race and gender, and the formation of industrial and ethnic identities during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Before pursuing his doctoral degree, he received my Bachelor of Arts in Social Science Education with a focus on History and Economics from the University of Education, Winneba, Ghana, and my Master of Philosophy in History from the University of Cape Coast, Ghana. He also served as a teaching and research assistant at the Department of History Education at the University of Education, Winneba, Ghana.