Alicia C. Decker

Alicia C. Decker is an Associate Professor of Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies, African Studies, and History at Pennsylvania State University, and currently serves as Department Head of Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies. She holds a PhD in women’s studies from Emory University, an MA in gender studies from Makerere University (Uganda), and a BA in anthropology from the University of Minnesota.

Her research focuses on gender and militarism in African contexts, particularly Uganda. She explores how militarism impacts gender roles, women’s agency during military rule, and the long-term societal legacies of militarized regimes. Her seminal work In Idi Amin’s Shadow: Women, Gender, and Militarism in Uganda (2014) examines Ugandan women’s complex relationship with Amin’s regime through oral histories and archival research. Her current project investigates post-military governance in Uganda, analyzing how militarism persists in gendered ways decades after Amin’s regime.

Decker is co-author of Africanizing Democracies: 1980 to the Present (2015) and co-editor of the Oxford Encyclopedia of African Women’s History. Her articles appear in journals like International Journal of African Historical Studies and Journal of African Military History.

Her teaching emphasizes global feminisms, African women’s history, and interdisciplinary approaches to militarism. She actively contributes to editorial boards in African military history and feminist scholarship.