معرفی
Nancy Jacobs is a Professor of History at Brown University, affiliated with the Department of History in the School of Humanities. Her research spans environmental history, colonial and contemporary African history, the history of science, and animal studies, with a particular focus on human-animal relations and knowledge production in southern Africa.
Her research interests center on the intersections of power, race, class, and gender in colonial and postcolonial Africa, with a unique emphasis on the more-than-human world. She employs microhistory and biography to explore how scientific knowledge, particularly in ornithology, was shaped by colonial dynamics and local African expertise. Her work challenges traditional boundaries between nature and culture, emphasizing interspecies relationships and the role of animals in historical processes.
The 15 most recent publications reflect a consistent trajectory in African environmental and scientific history, with increasing focus on animal agency, communication, and the Anthropocene from subaltern perspectives. Her work integrates Actor-Network Theory and transnational approaches, particularly evident in her studies of birders, parrots, and ecological networks across Africa and the diaspora.
- Hutchins Family Fellow, Harvard University (2023)
- Affiliated Scholar, Max Planck Institute for the History of Science (2022)
- Richard B. Salomon Faculty Research Award, Brown University (2022-23)
- Carson Fellow, Rachel Carson Center (2018)
- National Humanities Center Fellow (declined, 2022)
- American Society for Environmental History Alice Hamilton Prize (2002)
- Fulbright-Hays Fellowship (1990-91)
Dr. Jacobs has been an active mentor, receiving the Mellon Mays Outstanding Mentors Award in 2004, and has secured significant research funding from institutions such as the American Council for Learned Societies, the Rockefeller Foundation, and Brown University. She has taught a wide range of courses at Brown, including African Environmental History, Southern African Entanglements, and Animal Histories. Her current research project, 'The African Grey Parrot: A Global History,' continues her innovative exploration of interspecies relations across evolutionary, colonial, and contemporary contexts.
She is involved in collaborative research, notably with Jennifer Johnson of Brown University on a sourcebook for African history. Her lab and intellectual community include the Animal Studies Working Group at the Pembroke Center, which she led as a Seed Grant PI in 2016.
