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Empire History Speaker Series
Caroline Elkins
"British Colonial Violence and the End of Empire"
Friday, Nov. 21, 2008
Noon
Mershon Center for International Security Studies
1501 Neil Ave., Columbus, OH 43201
Co-sponsored by the Department of History.
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Caroline Elkins is Hugo K. Foster Associate Professor of African Studies in the Department of History at Harvard University. Her research interests include colonial violence and post-conflict reconciliation in Africa, and violence and the decline of the British Empire.
Elkins's book, Imperial Reckoning: The Untold Story of Britain's Gulag in Kenya (Henry Holt & Co., 2004), was awarded the 2006 Pulitzer Prize for General Non-Fiction. It was also selected as one of The Economist's best history books for 2005, was a New York Times editor's choice, and was a finalist for the Lionel Gelber Award.
Imperial Reckoning draws on a variety of sources -- including extensive oral testimonies, archival evidence, and personal accounts — to construct an understanding of the Mau Mau uprising and Britain's policy of interning 1.5 million people of the Kikuyu tribe in detention camps from 1952 to 1960.
Elkins and her research were also the subjects of a 2002 BBC documentary, "Kenya: White Terror," which won the International Committee of the Red Cross Award at the Monte Carlos Film Festival. She is a contributor to The New York Times Book Review, The Atlantic, and The New Republic. She has also appeared on numerous radio and television programs including NPR's All Things Considered, BBC's The World, and PBS's Charlie Rose.
Elkins is currently working on two projects, one examining the effects of violence and amnesia on local communities and nation-building in post-independent Kenya, the other analyzing British counter-insurgency operations after World War II, with case studies of Palestine, Malaya, Kenya, Cyprus, and Nyasaland.
Elkins teaches courses on modern Africa, protest in East Africa, human rights in Africa, and British colonial violence in the 20th century. |
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Caroline Elkins
Hugo K. Foster
Associate Professor
of African Studies Harvard University
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