Associate Professor & Chair, Department of History
Fields of Expertise
Biography
My work has focused on the history of the British empire, especially in Africa between 1895 and 1960. A major theme of my scholarship has been to examine the legacies of the late colonial period and to highlight their relevancy for international development and environmental policies and practices today. In my book, Triumph of the Expert: Agrarian Doctrines of Development and the Legacies of British Colonialism, I argue that the most striking feature of British colonialism in the 20th century was the increasing use of science and expertise, joined with the new bureaucratic capacities of the state, to develop the natural and human resources of the empire. The Great Depression, followed by the Second Word War, produced a far-reaching process of policy reform and new initiatives that gave rise to new kinds of knowledge and organization, making late British colonial imperialism, in many ways, an imperialism of science, technology and the authority of experts. I have pursued these themes further in two edited collections, Science and Empire: Knowledge and Networks of Science across the British Empire, 1800-1970 (co-edited with Brett Bennett), and Developing Africa: Concepts and practices in twentieth-century colonialism (co-edited with Gerald Hödl and Martina Kopf). In teaching, I offer courses on early modern Britain, decolonization, and a graduate reading seminar on Britain and the Empire.
I am currently working on a new book, After Empire: Late Colonial Experts, Postcolonial Careering and the Making of International Development, which examines the subsequent careers of former British colonial officials and technical staff, who went on to work in international development and other related fields overseas. Many individuals went on to become advisers and consultants working for the UN’s Specialized Agencies like the Food and Agriculture Organization and the World Bank. Others were employed by UK aid agencies such as the Overseas Development Administration and the Commonwealth Development Corporation. One of the main objectives of the book is to deepen our understanding of the transition from late colonialism to the postcolonial era, by examining how the concerns and visions of the last generation of British colonial officers influenced postcolonial ideas and institutions.
Bibliography
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Books:
After Empire: Late Colonial Experts, Postcolonial Careering and the Making of International Development (work in progress). I am currently writing a second book monograph that examines the subsequent careers of former British colonial officials and technical staff, who went on to work in international development and other related fields overseas. Many individuals went on to become advisers and consultants working for the UN’s Specialized Agencies like the Food and Agriculture Organization and the World Bank. Others were employed by UK aid agencies such as the Overseas Development Administration and the Commonwealth Development Corporation. One of the main objectives of the book is to deepen our understanding of the transition from late colonialism to the postcolonial era, by examining how the concerns and visions of the last generation of British colonial officers influenced postcolonial ideas and institutions.
Developing Africa: Concepts and Practices in Twentieth-Century Colonialism, edited by Joseph Hodge, Gerald Hӧdl and Martina Kopf, Studies in Imperialism Series (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 2014)
Science and Empire: Knowledge and Networks of Science across the British Empire, 1800-1970, edited by Brett Bennett and Joseph Hodge, Britain and the World Series (Basingstoke, UK: Palgrave Macmillan, 2011)
Triumph of the Expert: Agrarian Doctrines of Development and the Legacies of British Colonialism, Series in Ecology and History (Athens, OH: Ohio University Press, 2007)
Articles, Book Chapters & Review Essays:
“Beyond Dependency: North-South Relationships in the Age of Development,” in: Martin Thomas and Andrew Thompson, (eds.), The Oxford Handbook of the Ends of Empire, Oxford Handbooks in History Series (Oxford University Press, forthcoming, 2016).
“Historicizing Development: Reflections on the State of the Field, Part One – The ‘First Wave’ of Writing the History of Development,” Humanity: An International Journal of Human Rights, Humanitarianism and Development (forthcoming 2015). This is a two-part, extended review article analyzing the most influential contributions to the history of development and modernization published since 1990. I was invited by the journal’s editor, Nils Gilman, to write the article. It has been accepted for publication, and is currently being revised based on reports from two prominent reviewers in the field as well as the editorial board.
“Historicizing Development: Reflections on the State of the Field, Part Two – The ‘Second Phase’ of Writing the History of Development,” Humanity: An International Journal of Human Rights, Humanitarianism and Development (forthcoming 2015).
“Introduction,” with Gerald Hödl, in: Developing Africa: Concepts and Practices in Twentieth-Century Colonialism, edited by Joseph Hodge, Gerald Hödl and Martina Kopf, Studies in Imperialism Series (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 2014), pp. 1-34.
“Epilogue: taking stock, looking ahead,” in: Developing Africa: Concepts and Practices in Twentieth-Century Colonialism, edited by Joseph Hodge, Gerald Hödl and Martina Kopf, Studies in Imperialism Series (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 2014), pp. 367-76.
“Science and Empire: An Overview of the Historical Scholarship,” in: Brett Bennett and Joseph Hodge (eds.), Science and Empire: Knowledge and Networks of Science across the British Empire, 1800-1970 (Basingstoke, UK: Palgrave Macmillan, 2011), pp. 3-29.
“The Hybridity of Colonial Knowledge: British Tropical Agricultural Science and African Farming Practices at the End of Empire,” in: Brett Bennett and Joseph Hodge (eds.), Science and Empire: Knowledge and Networks of Science across the British Empire, 1800-1970 (Basingstoke, UK: Palgrave Macmillan, 2011), pp. 209-31.
“Colonial Experts, Developmental and Environmental Doctrines, and the Legacies of Late British Colonialism,” in: Christina Folke Ax, Niels Brimnes, Niklas Thode Jenson, and Karen Oslund (eds.), Cultivating the Colonies: Colonial States and Their Environmental Legacies, Research in International Studies: Global and Comparative Studies Series No. 12 (Athens, OH: Ohio University Press, 2011), pp. 300-26.
“British Colonial Expertise, Postcolonial Careering and the Early History of International Development,” in Andreas Eckert, Stephan Malinowski and Corinna Unger (eds.), Journal of Modern European History, Special Issue on “Modernizing Missions: Approaches to ‘Developing’ the Non-Western World after 1945”; Vol. 8, No. 1 (2010), pp. 24-46.
“Colonial Foresters versus Agriculturalists: The Debate over Climate Change and Cocoa Production in the Gold Coast,” Agricultural History, Vol. 83, No. 2 (Spring 2009), pp. 201-220.
“Recent Comparative Approaches to Imperial History and Settler Colonialism,” Journal of Southern African Studies, Vol. 34, No. 2 (2008), pp. 451-54.
“Science, Development and Empire: The Colonial Advisory Council on Agriculture and Animal Health, 1925-1943,” The Journal of Imperial and Commonwealth History, Vol. 30, No. 1 (January 2002), pp. 1-26.