Africa

United States of America

Assistant Professor

University of Kansas, Lawrence

macgonag@ku.edu

Department of History
University of Kansas
1445 Jayhawk Blvd.
Room 3619
Lawrence, Kansas 66045-7590 USA

phone: (785) 864-9452
fax: (785) 864-5046

Zimbabwe ; Mozambique

My research is devoted to investigating historical processes of identity
formation that consider the workings of memory--past and present--in both
Africa and the African Diaspora. This research trajectory examines links
of nation, culture, and ethnicity across historical, geographical, and
theoretical boundaries.

In my current research I am examining several extraordinary sites of
memory (World Heritage Sites recognized by UNESCO) steeped in history.

My book Crafting Identity in Zimbabwe and Mozambique (Rochester,
2007) shows how one language group, the Ndau of southeast Africa, actively
shaped their own identity and gave it meaning over a four-hundred-year
period. Future work will focus on twentieth-century ethnic, national, and
transnational identities between the Ndau and their neighbors.

Another publication focuses on the significance of Ghana's slave forts in
our collective memory since their use during the transatlantic slave
trade. This article, "From Dungeons to Dance Parties: Contested Histories
of Ghanas Slave Forts," appeared in the Journal of Contemporary
African Studies in May 2006.

identity formation ; history ; memory ; African Diaspora ; ethnicity ; nation ; culture.