I am a historian of European colonialism and modern Africa, currently serving as Pat Thompson DAAD Fellow and Tutor in Modern History at Wadham College, University of Oxford. I completed my doctorate at the European University Institute in Florence in 2022 with a dissertation entitled The Shadow Line: Railway and Society in Colonial East Africa, c. 1890–1914. Before coming to Oxford, I taught at the University of Bremen and the Freie Universität Berlin, and held a Junior Research Fellowship at the University College London and the German Historical Institute London.
Research interests
My work explores the social and cultural history of colonialism, with a focus on British rule in East Africa and on German colonialism in a global context. I’m interested in how infrastructures (like railways) and cities (re)shaped societies under empire, how ordinary people navigated colonial domination, and how these histories continue to resonate today.
Alongside these themes, I also study migration and diasporic experiences, including the lives of Africans in Europe. This contemporary focus leads me to broader questions about how colonialism has been remembered and addressed in different societies today. Divided Germany provides a compelling field of inquiry, where I examine how East and West Germany positioned themselves in relation to colonialism, anti-colonial struggles, and their own imperial legacy.
Current projects
My current research projects reflect these concerns. I am working on two book projects: the first is a popular history of Black Germany, charting the history and experiences of Africans from Germany’s former colonies who made their way to the country, with the narrative spanning from the 1880s to the 2000s. The second is a history of Mau Mau and anti-colonial struggles in Nairobi, examining the urban grammar of protest, everyday resistance, and the networks that sustained anti-colonial activities in the city from the 1930s to the 1960s.
Other projects extend into Maasai history, including studies of the Kedong’ massacre, their role in the First World War, and their attitudes and engagement in relation to Mau Mau. I am also preparing essays on the global history of infrastructures and colonial railways, and developing collected volumes and single-authored articles in contemporary European history that explore the afterlife of empire and the ways in which Germany has reckoned with its colonial past.
Methodological approaches
Three methodological approaches underpin my work.
- Oral history and oral tradition: offering a glimpse into lives absent from written archives and allowing the reconstruction of untold stories. I study the oral traditions of the Maasai, the Kikuyu, and urban residents of Nairobi.
- History from below: focusing on how ordinary people manoeuvred colonial systems, resisted empire, and shaped historical change from everyday positions.
- Memory studies: examining how colonialism has been remembered, silenced, or re-worked, and how these struggles over remembrance continue to shape political and cultural life.
