My research focuses on the history of migration, race, and humanitarianism between Europe and Africa in the twentieth century.

I am currently at work on a first book project called Migration after Empire: African Diasporas in West Germany, 1950–90. Focusing on migrants from Nigeria, Ghana, and Ethiopia, the book covers a range of themes — from music, food culture, and the arts to feminist literature, student activism, and religious practice. And it pays special attention to urban culture and social life in larger cities like Hamburg, which, by the 1980s, was home to Europe's second largest Ghanaian community after London and was the birthplace of Burger Highlife, an innovative, genre-bending synthesis of European disco and West African highlife. 

I have several forthcoming publications and works-in-progress: a book chapter about refugees and antiracism in 1980s West Germany; a book chapter on African migrants and Holocaust memory; and an article, based on my dissertation, about child refugees and international humanitarian aid in 1960s West and Central Africa.

The history of empire and decolonization has been a focal point of my previous scholarship, too. My dissertation at Duke explored German humanitarian and development aid in Africa after 1960. And my master's thesis in Geneva, which won the Prix Arditi, examined settler colonization and racial discourse between German Southwest Africa and East Prussia from the 1880s to the First World War.

My research has been supported by the Mellon Foundation and the American Council of Learned Societies, the Central European History Society, and the German Academic Exchange Service. 

The images below are drawn from my research.