معرفی
Alice Wiemers serves as Associate Professor of History at Davidson College, specializing in twentieth-century Africa within the Department of History. Her research bridges historical scholarship with contemporary policy debates through interdisciplinary engagement.
Her educational background includes a B.A. from Columbia University and M.A./Ph.D. degrees from John Hopkins University. Wiemers teaches core courses spanning African history from prehistoric migrations to modern eras, including specialized seminars on development, health, slavery, urban culture, and gender.
Her scholarship critically examines how economic structures intersect with social and political belonging in African contexts, particularly focusing on Ghana. She investigates bureaucratic ambiguity in state-society relations and analyzes how evidence about Africa is constructed and utilized by governments, academics, and international actors. Current research traces Ghanaian policymaking at the intersection of Cold War dynamics and emerging neoliberal frameworks.
Wiemers' 2021 monograph Village Work: Development and Rural Statecraft in 20th Century Ghana repositions rural Ghanaians as central agents in negotiating development within political, labor, and family histories. Her ongoing work extends this analysis into intellectual histories of policymaking during global geopolitical transitions.
She actively contributes to interdisciplinary dialogues through presentations in African studies and development studies circles, consistently advocating for historical rigor in broader academic and policy conversations. Her teaching portfolio includes HIS 168: Africa to 1800, HIS 169: The Making of Modern Africa, HIS 263: Development and Dissent in Africa, HIS 267: Health and Society in Africa, HIS 366: Slavery and Africa, HIS 369/ANT 234: Urban Africa/Popular Culture, HIS 467: Family and Families in African History, and HIS 469: Work, Gender, and Political Imagination in Africa.
