Thesiss

My return to Columbus, Ohio back in June 2019 allowed me to reflect as I walked along Stewart Avenue in the south side of the city on my way to Linwood where I once lived. Through my old hood, I recognized the homes where my friends once stayed, Stewart’s Carry Out and South Hig…

Developments in world politics and culture in the inter war and post war years, especially the rise of the anti-colonial nationalist movements in Africa, provide an important background to the rise of African cultural modernity and the emergence of modern African literature. Mod…

This dissertation explores a previously unknown history of migration, encounter, and intermarriage stretching back to the 1890s when Indian Muslim peddlers and escaped seamen began to settle within working-class communities of color in various cities of the U.S. Northeast, South…

This dissertation is a study of the ways West African Muslim immigrants in Harlem, New York negotiate the boundaries of multiple belongings. They perform a process I define as, 'boundary shifting,' which allows them to maneuver or alter their identities (be it African, Black, or…