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About Esperanza Brizuela-Garcia

Esperanza Brizuela-Garcia is Associate Professor of History at Montclair State University. She specializes in modern intellectual history of Africa, historiography, World history and Philosophy of History. She is the co-author of African Histories: New Sources and New Techniques for Studying African Pasts (Pearson, 2011).

Esperanza Brizuela-Garcia is an associate professor of history at Montclair State University.

NBN Episodes hosted by Esperanza:

African Studies April 7, 2022

Converging on Cannibals

Terrors of Slaving in Atlantic Africa, 1509-1670

Jared Staller

Hosted by Esperanza Brizuela-Garcia
In Converging on Cannibals: Terrors of Slaving in Atlantic Africa, 1509-1670 (Ohio UP, 2019), Jared Staller tells the history of how the myth of cannibalism in West Central Africa developed …
African Studies January 17, 2022

Health, Healing and Illness in African History

Rebekah Lee

Hosted by Esperanza Brizuela-Garcia
In Health, Healing and Illness in African History (Bloomsbury, 2021), Rebekah Lee makes an overall assessment of the history and historiography and health, healing and illness in the African context. This …
African Studies October 11, 2021

Healing Knowledge in Atlantic Africa

Kalle Kananoja

Hosted by Esperanza Brizuela-Garcia
In Healing Knowledge in Atlantic Africa (Cambridge UP, 2021), Kalle Kananoja tells the story of how pre-colonial communities throughout the west coast of Africa employed a wide range of medical …
African Studies July 28, 2021

Kwame Anthony Appiah

Christopher J. Lee

Hosted by Esperanza Brizuela-Garcia
Kwame Anthony Appiah is among the most respected philosophers and thinkers of his generation. In Kwame Anthony Appiah (Routledge, 2021), Christopher Lee introduces the reader not only to the contributions …
African Studies July 20, 2021

A Bold Profession

African Nurses in Rural Apartheid South Africa

Leslie Anne Hadfield

Hosted by Esperanza Brizuela-Garcia
The first African nurse was certified in the Ciskei region of South Africa during the early decades of the twentieth century. Since then, African nurses have played a key role …
African Studies April 19, 2021

National Liberation in Postcolonial Southern Africa

A Historical Ethnography of SWAPO's Exile Camps

Christian A. Williams

Hosted by Esperanza Brizuela-Garcia
In National Liberation in Postcolonial Southern Africa: A Historical Ethnography of SWAPO’s Exile Camps (Cambridge University Press, 2015), Christian Williams tells the stories of the many exiles that lived in camps established by the …
African Studies April 7, 2021

Street Archives and City Life

Popular Intellectuals in Postcolonial Tanzania

Emily Callaci

Hosted by Esperanza Brizuela-Garcia
Emily Callaci's book Street Archives and City Life: Popular Intellectuals in Postcolonial Tanzania (Duke University Press, 2017) tells the histories of the young migrants who shaped the city of Dar es …
African Studies March 8, 2021

Health in a Fragile State

Science, Sorcery, and Spirit in the Lower Congo

John M. Janzen

Hosted by Esperanza Brizuela-Garcia
John M. Janzen's Health in a Fragile State: Science, Sorcery, and Spirit in the Lower Congo (Wisconsin University Press, 2019) offers a granular and insightful view of the state of healthcare services in …
African Studies February 16, 2021

Kongo in the Age of Empire, 1860–1913

The Breakdown of a Moral Order

Jelmer Vos

Hosted by Esperanza Brizuela-Garcia
Kongo in the Age of Empire, 1860-1913: The Breakdown of a Moral Order (U Wisconsin Press, 2017) traces the history that led to a violent insurrection that erupted in the …
African Studies September 2, 2020

Wildlife between Empire and Nation in Twentieth-Century Africa

Jeff Schauer

Hosted by Esperanza Brizuela-Garcia
The protection of African wildlife enjoys the support of large numbers of individuals and institutions throughout the world. In Wildlife between Empire and Nation in Twentieth-Century Africa (Palgrave Macmillan, 2019) …
African Studies August 3, 2020

The Politics of Disease Control

Sleeping Sickness in Eastern Africa, 1890-1920

Mari K. Webel

Hosted by Esperanza Brizuela-Garcia
In The Politics of Disease Control. Sleeping Sickness in Eastern Africa, 1890-1920 (Ohio University Press, 2019), Mari K. Webel tells a history of colonial interventions among three communities of the …
African Studies June 19, 2020

Legislative Development in Africa

Politics and Postcolonial Legacies

Ken O. Opalo

Hosted by Esperanza Brizuela-Garcia
Legislative Development in Africa: Politics and Postcolonial Legacies (Cambridge University Press, 2019) examines the development of African legislatures from their colonial origins through independence, autocracy and the transition to multi-party …
African Studies May 7, 2020

Our Own Way In this Part of the World

Biography of an African Community, Culture, and Nation

Kwasi Konadu

Hosted by Esperanza Brizuela-Garcia
In his new book Our Own Way In this Part of the World: Biography of an African Community, Culture and Nation (Duke University Press, 2019), Kwasi Konadu tells the story …
African Studies March 19, 2020

Unreasonable Histories

Nativism, Multiracial Lives, and the Genealogical Imagination in British Africa

Christopher J. Lee

Hosted by Esperanza Brizuela-Garcia
In Unreasonable Histories: Nativism, Multiracial Lives, and the Genealogical Imagination in British Africa (Duke University Press, 2014), Christopher J. Lee recovers the forgotten experiences of multiracial peoples in the British …
African Studies April 24, 2019

The Long Struggle against Malaria in Tropical Africa

James L. A. Webb

Hosted by Esperanza Brizuela-Garcia
It is estimated that malaria kills between 650,000 to 1.2 million people every year; experts believe that nearly 90 percent of these deaths occur in Africa. In The Long Struggle …
African Studies March 22, 2019

Political Thought and the Public Sphere in Tanzania

Freedom, Democracy and Citizenship in the Era of Decolonization

Emma Hunter

Hosted by Esperanza Brizuela-Garcia
Histories of African nationalism and decolonization have often assumed that political ideas such as freedom and democracy were imported into African colonies and helped motivate Africans to seek their independence …
African Studies November 13, 2018

Colonial Buganda and the End of Empire

Political Thought and Historical Imagination in Africa

Jonathon Earle

Hosted by Esperanza Brizuela-Garcia
In his book Colonial Buganda and the End of Empire: Political Thought and Historical Imagination in Africa (Cambridge University Press, 2017), Dr. Jonathon Earle illustrates the rich and diverse intellectual …
African Studies May 23, 2018

Living with Nkrumahism

Nation, State, and Pan-Africanism in Ghana

Jeffrey Ahlman

Hosted by Esperanza Brizuela-Garcia
In 1957 Ghana achieved its independence from Great Britain under the leadership of Kwame Nkrumah. In Living with Nkrumahism: Nation, State, and Pan-Africanism in Ghana (Ohio University Press, 2017), Jeffrey …
African Studies March 22, 2018

Slave Owners of West Africa

Decision Making in the Age of Abolition

Sandra E. Greene

Hosted by Esperanza Brizuela-Garcia
In today's podcast we talked to Dr. Sandra Greene about her book Slave Owners of West Africa. Decision Making in the Age of Abolition published in 2017 by Indiana University …
African Studies February 23, 2018

Ghana on the Go

African Mobility in the Age of Motor Transportation

Jennifer Hart

Hosted by Esperanza Brizuela-Garcia
Our guest today was Dr. Jennifer Hart who talked to us about her recently published book Ghana on the Go: African Mobility in the Age of Motor Transportation (Indiana University …
African Studies November 17, 2017

From Empires to NGOs in the West African Sahel

The Road to Non-Governmentality

Gregory Mann

Hosted by Esperanza Brizuela-Garcia
Today we spoke to Gregory Mann about his book From Empires to NGOs in the West African Sahel: The Road to Non-Governmentality (Cambridge University Press, 2014). Gregory Mann investigates how …