Gregory Mann
Associate Professor
615 Fayerweather Hall
Phone: (212) 854-3168
Email: gm522@columbia.edu
Office Hours: By appointment
Education
Ph.D. — Northwestern University 2000
M.A. — Northwestern University 1995
B.A. — University of Georgia 1993
Interests and Research
Gregory Mann is an historian of francophone West Africa. He is currently working on a book project entitled The End of the Road: Nongovernmentality in the West African Sahel. Drawing on research conducted primarily in Mali, the project analyzes the rise of novel forms of political rationality among governments and non-governmental organizations in the Sahel from 1946 to the late 1970s. Mann's articles have appeared in the American Historical Review, Comparative Studies in Society and History, the Journal of African History and Politique Africaine, among other publications. His award-winning book Native Sons: West African Veterans and France in the 20th century was published by Duke University Press in 2006. He earned his doctorate at Northwestern University and his B.A. at the University of Georgia. Mann lives in New York City.
Courses
- West African History
- Writing Contemporary African History
- Africa and France
- Islam in Africa
- African Civilizations
- Making African History: Between Field and Archive
- Introduction to History and Historiography
- Historiography of Africa
- Africa, Europe, and New Colonial Histories
- Neoliberal Africa
Awards
- Fellow, Stanford Humanities Center, 2009-10
- David Pinkney Prize for the best book in French history published in 2006, awarded by the Society for French Historical Studies for Native Sons, 2007
- Finalist, Melville J. Herskovits Prize for the best book in African studies published in 2006, awarded by the African Studies Association for Native Sons, 2007
- National Endowment for the Humanities Summer Stipend, 2005
- Camargo Foundation Fellowship (Cassis, France), 2000
- Fulbright-IIE, 1998-99
Books
Native Sons: West African Veterans and France in the 20th century
Recent Articles
2012 - "Knowing the Postcolony: Sociology and Socialist Government in 1960s Mali," In la Fabrique des Savoirs en Afrique subsaharienne, Didier Nativel and Daouda Gary-Tounakara, eds., Paris, Karthala: 91-108
2012 - "The Mess in Mali," Foreign Policy, April 5.
2009 - "What was the indigénat? The 'Empire of law' in French West Africa," Journal of African History 50, 3: 331-53.
2008 - "An Africanist's Apostasy: On Luise White's Speaking with Vampires," International Journal of African Historical Studies 41, 1: 117-21.
2007 - With Baz Lecocq, "Between Empire, umma, and Muslim Third World: The French Union and African Pilgrims to Mecca, 1946-1958," Comparative Studies of South Asia, Africa, and the Middle East 27, 2: 367-83.
2007 - "Colonialism Now: Contemporary Anti-colonialism and the facture coloniale," Politique Africaine 105: 181-200.
2005 - "Locating Colonial Histories: Between France and West Africa," American Historical Review 110, 2: 409-34.
2005 - "Des tirailleurs Sénégalais aux sans-papiers: Universaux et particularismes," In L'Esclavage, la Colonisation, et après?: France, Etats-Unis, Grande Bretagne, Patrick Weil and Stéphane Dufoix, eds. Presses Universitaires de la France: 411-36.
2003 - "Immigrants and Arguments in France and West Africa," Comparative Studies in Society and History 45, 2: 362-85.
2003 - "Violence, Dignity and Mali's New Model Army, 1960-68," Mande Studies 5: 65-82.
Affiliations
- Fellow, Columbia University Institute for Scholars at Reid Hall (Paris)
- Member, Committee on the Global Core
- Program Coordinator, African Civilizations
- Program Member, Advisory Committee, Center for International History
- Member, French Studies Interdisciplinary Committee
- Member, Faculty Advisory Committee, Office of Global Programs
- Member, Institute for Social and Economic Research and Policy
- Member, African Studies Association
- Member, American Historical Association
- Member, Institut des Sciences Humaines, Bamako, Mali
- Member, Mande Studies Association
- Member, Projet Point Sud—Center for Research on Local Knowledge, Bamako, Mali