Assistant Professor of African History
(Ph.D. Michigan State, 2002; M.A. Michigan State, 1996; B.A. Trinity College, Hartford, CT, 1990)
Prof. MacGonagle's current research draws on African oral histories, archival documents and material culture to examine the shaping of identities over several centuries in the Ndau region of eastern Zimbabwe and central Mozambique. In 1998-1999 she interviewed Ndau elders throughout the region and consulted archives in Mozambique, Zimbabwe and Portugal with support from a Fulbright-Hays fellowship. An article on using early Portuguese documents as historical sources, "Mightier than the Sword: The Portuguese Pen in Ndau History," was published in History in Africa in 2001. While in Mozambique in 2003, she conducted further research on the politics and power of ethnic awareness in southeast Africa during the twentieth century. She is currently working on a book-length manuscript on the crafting of identity in Mozambique and Zimbabwe. Prof. MacGonagle speaks Portuguese and Ndau, a dialect of Shona.
In addition to fieldwork in Mozambique and Zimbabwe, she has also spent time in Africa in Zambia, Ghana, Togo, South Africa, Swaziland, Kenya and Zanzibar. In 2003-2004 she collaborated with Ken Lohrentz (KU Libraries) to digitize a portion of the Onitsha Market Literature collection held at KU's Spencer Research Library. Selections of this popular Nigerian literature, along with a companion website, are on the Internet at www.ku.edu/~onitsha. In 2004, she received a Fulbright fellowship to teach African history at the University of Iceland.
Prof. MacGonagle teaches African history at KU in the departments of History and African & African-American Studies. She has training in Comparative Black history and interests in social and cultural history and gender studies. Her recent course offerings include: Sexuality and Gender in African History (HIST 598/AAAS 598), Modern African History (AAAS 305/HIST 300), Introduction to African History (AAAS 105/HIST 104) and the Senior Seminar in African and African-American Studies (AAAS 550).
At KU, Prof. MacGonagle is an executive committee member of the Kansas African Studies Resource Center and a member of the university-wide African Studies Council. She is also a member of the African Studies Association, Lusophone African Studies Organization (LAÇO), Association of Concerned Africa Scholars and Mid-America Alliance for African Studies.
E-Mail: macgonag@ku.edu
Office Phone Number: (785) 864-9452
Office Location: 2005 Wescoe Hall
Mailing Address: Dept. of History,
1445 Jayhawk Blvd. , Room 3001
Lawrence , KS 66045 -7590
Fax: (785) 864-5046
