James Blackwell

Candidate statement

James Blackwell is a Ph.D. candidate in African History at Michigan State University. His dissertation explores the history of Igbo and Ibibio labor migration between southeastern Nigeria and British Southern Cameroon, formally German Kamerun, from 1900 to 1975. By beginning in German Kamerun, he engages not only with the partition of Cameroon between the British and French, but Germany’s reengagement with Cameroon following World War I. He was an editorial assistant for the Journal of West African History, from 2016-2017, and assisted in its international launch. He was awarded the TIAA Ruth Simms Hamilton Graduate Merit Fellowship in 2018, to complete dissertation fieldwork in Nigeria. In addition to his dissertation, he is also an executive producer and historical consultant on a documentary that explores the African Diaspora. As a member of both the GSA and Black Studies Network, he has continued to center questions surrounding German imperialism and its relationship with the African Diaspora.