Michelle R. Moyd

• Assistant Professor, Department of History

Education

• Ph.D. at Cornell University, 2008

Contact Information

Ballantine Hall, Rm. 720

(812) 856-4787

Background

Trained as a historian of eastern Africa, my research explores the experiences of African soldiers in the colonial army of German East Africa, today’s Tanzania.  These soldiers, known as askari, had a reputation for brutality among east Africans who encountered them in their everyday lives. They have also been portrayed as profoundly loyal to their German officers.  By placing these soldiers in their immediate cultural and social contexts (community, family, military training) -- I try to move away from stereotypical descriptions to a more historically informed understanding of askari identities.  I contend that soldiers should be understood as people with complex loyalties and desires that are not always easily explained in terms of patriotism or nationalism. My first book project continues in this vein, developing comparisons to troops in French and British colonial armies as well.  In my teaching, I draw on overlapping interests in African history, social and cultural histories of conflict and militarization, and the history of European colonialism.

Selected Awards

• American Council on Germany Research Grant (2008)
• Seymour Bluestone Fellowship, Cornell University (2008)
• Provost's Diversity Fellowship, Cornell University (2007)
• Berlin Program for Advanced German and European Studies (2004-5)
• Fulbright Fellowship, Tanzania (2003-2004)

Research Interests

• African military history
• Everyday history of colonialism
• Power and its expressions

Courses Recently Taught

• Warfare in Africa: Myths and Realities
• E331 Reflections of the Past in the Present: Africa to the 1800s
• E332 Conflict, Cooperation, and Cultural Change: Africa Since the 1800s
• J300 African Military Cultures and Conflicts
• H695 Eastern Africa

Publication Highlights

"'We don't want to die for nothing': Askari at War in German East Africa, 1914-1918," in Race, Empire, and First World War Experience, Santanu Das, ed. (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, forthcoming)

"Askari/Askari Myth" in A Companion to Continental European Postcolonial Histories, Birthe Kundrus, ed. (Edinburgh and New York: Edinburgh University Press and Columbia University Press, 2008).

 "'All people were barbarians to the askari':  Askari Identity and Honor in the Maji Maji War, 1905-1907," in The Maji Maji War As Local Event and National Legacy, James Giblin and Jamie Monson, eds. (London: James Currey, forthcoming).

"A Uniform of Whiteness: Racisms in the German Officer Corps," in Uncovered Fields: Perspectives in First World War Studies, Jenny Macleod and Pierre Purseigle, eds. (Leiden: Brill, 2004).