معرفی
Khaled Esseissah is an Assistant Professor of History at the University of Wisconsin–Madison, specializing in the history of Islam, colonialism, slavery, race, and gender in nineteenth- and twentieth-century West Africa. His research focuses on the Ḥrāṭīn community in Mauritania, exploring their agency in resisting oppression and shaping modern Mauritania through religious, political, and economic strategies. He holds a Ph.D. from Indiana University-Bloomington (2018), an M.A. from Bowling Green State University (2014), and degrees from Université de Cheikh Anta Diop and Université de Nouakchott.
His current book project, Activating Emancipation: Race, Slavery, and Islamic Respectability Among the Ḥrāṭīn in Colonial Mauritania, contracted with Ohio University Press, challenges narratives of Ḥrāṭīn passivity by highlighting their active role in colonial-era social transformation. A second project examines the contributions of marginalized Harāṭīn and Mʿalīmin communities to Islamic knowledge production in the Sahara.
Esseissah’s research employs oral histories, archival documents, and public cultural artifacts like poetry. His awards include a Council of American Overseas Research Centers/National Endowment for the Humanities Senior Fellowship (2020) and a Carnegie Saharan Crossroads Fellowship (2016). He teaches courses on global slavery, jihad movements in Africa, and transnational Islam.
- Education:
- Ph.D., History, Indiana University-Bloomington
- M.A., History, Bowling Green State University
- D.E.A., History, Université de Cheikh Anta Diop
- B.A., History, Université de Nouakchott
His work interrogates how subaltern groups leveraged Islamic frameworks to assert freedom and cultural agency, reshaping scholarly understandings of Saharan intellectual history and the role of marginalized communities in knowledge production.
