About Thomas Zuber

Thomas Zuber is a social and economic historian of West Africa, with a particular focus on Burkina Faso and the Sahel. He is Visiting Assistant Professor at Columbia University.

NBN Episodes hosted by Thomas:

Christopher Tounsel, "Chosen Peoples: Christianity and Political Imagination in South Sudan" (Duke UP, 2021)

April 28, 2022

Chosen Peoples

Christopher Tounsel
Hosted by Thomas Zuber

On July 9, 2011, South Sudan celebrated its independence as the world's newest nation, an occasion that the country's Christian leaders claimed had be…

Serena Owusua Dankwa, "Knowing Women: Same-sex Intimacy, Gender, and Identity in Postcolonial Ghana" (Cambridge UP, 2021)

March 24, 2022

Knowing Women

Serena Owusua Dankwa
Hosted by Thomas Zuber

Knowing Women: Same-sex Intimacy, Gender, and Identity in Postcolonial Ghana (Cambridge UP, 2021) is a study of same-sex desire in West Africa, which …

Robin Phylisia Chapdelaine, "The Persistence of Slavery: An Economic History of Child Trafficking in Nigeria" (U Massachusetts Press, 2021)

January 28, 2022

The Persistence of Slavery

Robin Phylisia Chapdelaine
Hosted by Thomas Zuber

Despite efforts to abolish slavery throughout Africa in the nineteenth century, the coercive labor systems that constitute "modern slavery" have conti…

Anne Hugon, "Etre mère en situation coloniale: Gold Coast (années 1910-1950)" (Editions de la Sorbonne, 2020)

December 6, 2021

Etre mère en situation coloniale

Anne Hugon
Hosted by Thomas Zuber

For a majority of African women, the “colonial encounter” occurred at the maternity ward, the health centre, or Maternal and Infant Welfare Centres. I…

Ndubueze L. Mbah, "Emergent Masculinities: Gendered Power and Social Change in the Biafran Atlantic Age" (Ohio UP, 2019)

November 16, 2021

Emergent Masculinities

Ndubueze L. Mbah
Hosted by Thomas Zuber

In Emergent Masculinities: Gendered Power and Social Change in the Biafran Atlantic Age (Ohio University Press, 2019), Ndubueze L. Mbah argues that th…