Naseemah Mohamed

Naseemah Mohamed is an Assistant Professor at the Carter G. Woodson Institute for African American and African Studies within the College of Arts & Sciences at the University of Virginia. She is also a Batten affiliate and part of the 2024 cohort of new faculty. Her interdisciplinary scholarship bridges education, global politics, media, and technology, with a focus on 20th-century Africa and liberation movements.

Her research investigates the role of education in political struggle and nation-building, particularly in Zimbabwe’s liberation movements. She employs oral histories and archival research to explore how education functioned as a tool for ideological formation and military strategy during anti-colonial resistance. Her work reveals visions of postcolonial governance and citizenship shaped by these movements.

Dr. Mohamed teaches courses on education in conflict zones, transnational liberation movements during the Cold War, and Indigenous policymaking in the 21st century. She is developing a new course titled AI in Africa: Opportunities, Challenges and Realities, which critically examines the historical, ethical, and political dimensions of emerging technologies on the continent. She also leads an advanced qualitative methods course where students engage in ancestral research using archival materials, oral history, reflective writing, and genetic testing.

Her current book project analyzes how Zimbabwe’s liberation movements used education as a political, ideological, and military instrument during the struggle against the Rhodesian regime, drawing on extensive oral and archival sources.

• Rhodes Scholar

Dr. Mohamed mentors students in qualitative research and interdisciplinary scholarship. She contributes to curriculum development in African Studies and emerging technology ethics. While no specific grants are mentioned, her Rhodes Scholarship indicates significant prior research support. Her work bridges academic inquiry with public engagement, particularly in understanding the legacies of colonialism and the future of education and technology in Africa.

She leads an innovative methods course that integrates personal narrative with historical analysis, fostering deep student engagement with research methodology. Her affiliation with both the Woodson Institute and the Batten School underscores her cross-disciplinary impact in education policy, African studies, and public affairs.