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Jeffrey Ahlman

@jeffahlman

Professor of History and Gwendolen Carter Professor of African Studies at Smith College. Writes on Ghana, African decolonization, and African transnationalism.

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14.09.2023
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Latest posts by Jeffrey Ahlman @jeffahlman

The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill campus on a sunny day.

The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill campus on a sunny day.

UNC to Close Area Studies Centers https://bit.ly/4q5kUhf

#EDUSky #HigherEd

20.12.2025 00:43 πŸ‘ 2 πŸ” 1 πŸ’¬ 1 πŸ“Œ 0
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Four Frictions: or, How to Resist AI in Education - Public Books We are calling for resistance to the AI industry’s ongoing capture of higher education.

"We envision a resistance that is...a repudiation of the efficiencies that automated algorithmic education falsely promises: a resistance comprising the collective force of small acts of friction."

"How to Resist AI in Education" by me & @cnygren.bsky.social
www.publicbooks.org/four-frictio...

16.12.2025 17:27 πŸ‘ 747 πŸ” 315 πŸ’¬ 16 πŸ“Œ 76
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Contre les fausses Γ©vidences, Thomas SnΓ©garoff et Benjamin Stora signent un prΓ©cis d’histoire sur l’AlgΓ©rie franΓ§aise Dans leur livre « France/AlgΓ©rie, anatomie d’une dΓ©chirureΒ Β», les historiens remontent Γ  la source de la blessure coloniale pour Γ©clairer les soubresauts de l’actualitΓ©.

Contre les fausses Γ©vidences, Thomas SnΓ©garoff et Benjamin Stora signent un prΓ©cis d’histoire sur l’AlgΓ©rie franΓ§aise

14.12.2025 09:30 πŸ‘ 2 πŸ” 2 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 0
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Opinion | Africa Is Rising. The World Shouldn’t Turn Its Back.

Transcript and podcast. www.nytimes.com/2025/11/12/o...

23.11.2025 14:08 πŸ‘ 22 πŸ” 9 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 0
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Opinion | Africa Is Rising. The World Shouldn’t Turn Its Back.

I loved having this conversation with @hofrench.bsky.social about Africa's past, present and future, as well as Howard's brilliant new book about Kwame Nkrumah. www.nytimes.com/2025/11/12/o...

12.11.2025 19:54 πŸ‘ 53 πŸ” 13 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 2

Congratulations @hofrench.bsky.social ! So well deserved!

12.10.2025 21:59 πŸ‘ 2 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 1

Today is a day when arts degrees are worthless, but the product of those degrees is so valuable it would kill an entire industry if they were made to pay for it.

08.10.2025 10:29 πŸ‘ 27037 πŸ” 10279 πŸ’¬ 424 πŸ“Œ 184
Apply - Interfolio {{$ctrl.$state.data.pageTitle}} - Apply - Interfolio

🚨JOB ALERT🚨

We! Are! Hiring!

The Department of Africana Studies at Smith College invites applications for a tenure-track position in Black
Women’s Studies/Gender Studies at the rank of Assistant Professor, to begin 7/1/26

More info here: apply.interfolio.com/171572

#blackademia #academia #PhDSky

07.08.2025 19:18 πŸ‘ 127 πŸ” 128 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 10
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Why Area Studies Matters (opinion) If we are to save area studies programs, it will fall to universities to recognize their value, Amanda Lanzillo writes.

www.insidehighered.com/opinion/view...

03.09.2025 15:42 πŸ‘ 3 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 0
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Trump’s unfounded attack on Cyril Ramaphosa was an insult to all Africans | John Dramani Mahama If we want to solve injustices in Africa today, we cannot forget the injustices that shaped our shared history, says Ghana’s president, John Dramani Mahama

www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

28.05.2025 13:45 πŸ‘ 1 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 0
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Valentin-Yves Mudimbe, 83, Dies; African Scholar Challenged the West He deconstructed what he called β€œthe colonial library”: the accounts of Africa by Europeans whose aim, he said, was to further colonialism.

www.nytimes.com/2025/04/27/w...

28.04.2025 12:39 πŸ‘ 9 πŸ” 5 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 0
Associate Professor (tenured) Public History/Associate Director of Slavery North Initiative | University of Massachusetts Amherst Amherst, Massachusetts, Job no: 526190 Work type: Faculty Full Time Location: UMass Amherst Department: History Union: MSP Categories: College of Humanities & Fine Arts, Tenure Track About UMass Amherst UMass Amherst, the Commonwealth's flagship…

New History Job Posted Today: Associate Professor (tenured) Public History/Associate Director of Slavery North Initiative | University of Massachusetts Amherst

18.03.2025 01:00 πŸ‘ 5 πŸ” 4 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 0
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W.E.B. Du Bois and the Liberian Question: Sovereignty, Empire, and the Tensions of a Black Republic | The Journal of African American History: Vol 110, No 1 Abstract During the 1920s and early 1930s, W.E.B. Du Bois regularly turned his attention to the question of Liberia and specifically to the fragility of Liberian sovereignty in the imperial world. The...

πŸŽ“ New article by Jeffrey Ahlman (@jeffahlman.bsky.social) on "W.E.B. Du Bois and the Liberian Question: Sovereignty, Empire, and the Tensions of a Black Republic"
www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/abs/10.1...

14.03.2025 17:39 πŸ‘ 4 πŸ” 2 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 0
Apply - Interfolio {{$ctrl.$state.data.pageTitle}} - Apply - Interfolio

My department at Smith College is hiring a one year VAP in Political Theory. Full time (2:3) and benefited position.

Specialization is open but particularly interested in candidates in either American Political Thought and/or Comparative Political Theory.

Apply here apply.interfolio.com/164854

12.03.2025 21:37 πŸ‘ 11 πŸ” 13 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 0

This may not be as tragic as the devastation of PEPFAR, which has deprived AIDS patients of medications, but the elimination of the Title VI and Fulbright-Hays programs is a real loss for our country and the world.

13.03.2025 13:13 πŸ‘ 12 πŸ” 7 πŸ’¬ 2 πŸ“Œ 0
University of Chicago Press Journals: Cookie absent

www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/epdf/10....
New article: "W. E. B. Du Bois and the Liberian Question: Sovereignty, Empire, and the Tensions of a Black Republic"

10.03.2025 21:47 πŸ‘ 2 πŸ” 1 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 0

James Ferguson, a guiding light in the anthropology of southern Africa, has died.

His prose and analysis offered a model of clarity and insight. He was only 65. Very very sad.

14.02.2025 19:32 πŸ‘ 120 πŸ” 41 πŸ’¬ 15 πŸ“Œ 19
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**Today,** from noon-1pm (PST), UW African Studies hosts Bright Gyamfi @gyamfiphd.bsky.social for his virtual lecture β€œEmbers of Pan-Africanism: Nkrumahist Intellectuals and Decolonization, 1960-1980.”

Registration link is below, hope you can make it!

Link: jsis.washington.edu/africa/event...

12.02.2025 18:08 πŸ‘ 3 πŸ” 2 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 0

I like to think of it more as timeless.

12.02.2025 22:44 πŸ‘ 0 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 1 πŸ“Œ 0

It appeared in my queue this morning.

12.02.2025 22:42 πŸ‘ 1 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 1 πŸ“Œ 0
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Thank you so much, @newbooksnetwork.bsky.social for giving me the opportunity to discuss THE IDEOLOGICAL SCRAMBLE FOR AFRICA! @cornellupress.bsky.social You can listen to it here: newbooksnetwork.com/the-ideologi...

12.02.2025 22:39 πŸ‘ 12 πŸ” 4 πŸ’¬ 1 πŸ“Œ 0
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The Second Emancipation: Nkrumah, Pan-Africanism, and Global Blackness at High Tide|Hardcover One of the Most Anticipated Books of 2025 by Foreign Policy “Howard French’s The Second Emancipation stands the second half of the last century on its geopolitical head.” —Davi...

Very excited to share this news. My next book, The Second Emancipation, comes out in August, but if you want to buy it now through Barnes and Noble you can get 25% off today only by using PREORDER 25 at checkout. www.barnesandnoble.com/w/the-second...

06.02.2025 13:33 πŸ‘ 44 πŸ” 13 πŸ’¬ 5 πŸ“Œ 3

Congrats Howard! I look forward to it!

07.02.2025 00:48 πŸ‘ 0 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 1
Details - Associate Professor (tenured) Public History/Associate Director of Slavery North Initiative | Human Resources | UMass Amherst

We’re hiring a tenured historian at UMass-Amherst in the Public Histories of North American Enslavement. Please circulate to anyone you think would be interested careers.umass.edu/amherst/en-u... πŸ—ƒοΈ

01.02.2025 14:38 πŸ‘ 1176 πŸ” 483 πŸ’¬ 20 πŸ“Œ 11
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29.01.2025 23:17 πŸ‘ 2 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 0
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Students who grew up with search engines might change STEM education forever Professors are struggling to teach Gen Z

As we kick off the first week of quarter, I am reminded that I my mental model is *absolutely* directory structure and I have no idea how students now live their entire lives in the chaotic laundry basket that is Google Drive. This article explains it so well: www.theverge.com/22684730/stu...

08.01.2025 23:08 πŸ‘ 190 πŸ” 36 πŸ’¬ 15 πŸ“Œ 17
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How Changes in K-12 Schooling Hampered the Preparation of College Students Accountability and test-based reforms, pandemic-era disruptions, and larger social and economic pressures have fostered ineffective habits.

www.chronicle.com/article/some...

08.01.2025 21:05 πŸ‘ 0 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 1
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11 books about urban Africa from 2024 Learn more about city life in Africa

open.substack.com/pub/thisweek...

07.01.2025 20:06 πŸ‘ 5 πŸ” 2 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 1
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Proofs Day.

06.01.2025 20:22 πŸ‘ 2 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 0
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Top Africa Stories of the Year 2024 December 27, 2024

open.substack.com/pub/thisweek...

29.12.2024 00:38 πŸ‘ 4 πŸ” 3 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 0