MICHELLE R. MOYD
Department of History
450 McGraw Hall
Cornell University
Ithaca, New York 14853-4601
(607)
262-0156
mrm42@cornell.edu
___________________________________________________________________________________________
Education
Cornell University May 2003 -- present
Ph.D.
Candidate, History
Primary
Field: African History
Committee
Chair: Professor Sandra Greene
Secondary
Fields: Modern German History, Military History
Secondary
Field Advisors: Professor Isabel Hull, Professor Barry Strauss
Cornell University Sept 2000 – May 2003
Master
of Arts, History, 2003
University of Florida Sept 1995 – Dec 1996
Master
of Arts, African History; and Certificate in African Area Studies
Master’s
Thesis: Language and Power: Africans, Europeans, and Language Policy in
German
Colonial
Tanganyika
Princeton University Sept 1986 – June 1990
Bachelor
of Arts, Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs; and
Certificate in European Cultural Studies
Senior
Thesis: The Rise and Fall of Opposition Political Groups in the German
Democratic Republic, 1989-1990
Dissertation
Becoming
Askari: African Soldiers and Everyday Colonialism in German East Africa,
1889-1918
My
dissertation is a social and cultural history of the African soldiers known as askari
who fought in the German colonial army in East Africa. Examination of their
intermediate position within the colonial structure as both wielders and
subjects of colonial power and violence reveals how German colonial ideas of
racial hierarchy interacted with German and African military traditions to
produce a dependable fighting force. German celebrations of askari loyalty,
however, masked a complex group identity that sometimes challenged German ideas
of effective colonial administration.
“Askari/Askari
Myth” in A Companion to Continental European Postcolonial Histories,
Birthe Kundrus, ed. (Edinburgh and New York: Edinburgh University Press and
Columbia University Press, forthcoming).
“‘All people were barbarians to the
askari’: Askari Identity and
Honor in the Maji Maji War,
1905-1907,”
in The Maji Maji War As Local Event and National Legacy, James Giblin
and
Jamie Monson, eds. London: James Currey, forthcoming.
“Tanganyika/Tanzania:
Swahili language, use and spread” and “Language and the Colonial
State”
in Encyclopedia of African History, Kevin Shillington, ed. (London:
Fitzroy Dearborn, 2005).
Chapter
XIV-Africa, A Handbook on World War I, Robin Higham, ed. (Manhattan:
Greenwood Press, 2004).
“A
Uniform of Whiteness: Racisms in the German Officer Corps,” in Uncovered
Fields:
Perspectives
in First World War Studies, Jenny
Macleod and Pierre Purseigle, eds. (Leiden: Brill, 2004).
“Julius
Nyerere,” “Tanzania,” “ivory,” “Seyyid Said,” “German Empire,” “Somalia,” and
“Zanzibar”
in Encyclopedia of Colonialism, Melvin Page, ed. (New York: East River
Books, 2003).
“Somalia,
1988-present,” “WWI: East Africa,” and “Women and War” in Reader’s Guide to
Military
History, Charles Messenger, ed.
(London: Fitzroy Dearborn, 2001).
Review
of Sandra Maß, Weiße Helden, schwarze Krieger. Zur Geschichte kolonialer
Männlichkeit
in Deutschland 1918-1964 on H-German, forthcoming.
Review
of Gregory Mann, Native Sons: West African Veterans and France in the
Twentieth
Century in Journal of Colonialism
and Colonial History, forthcoming.
Review
of Stephen J. Rockel, Carriers of Culture: Labor on the Road in
Nineteenth-Century East
Africa in African Studies Review, forthcoming.
Review
of Jane L. Parpart and Marianne Rostgaard, eds. The Practical Imperialist:
Letters from a
Danish
Planter in German East Africa 1888-1906 on
H-German, 2007.
Review
of Derek Peterson, Creative Writing: Translation, Bookkeeping, and the Work
of
Imagination
in Colonial Kenya in African
Studies Review, 2006.
Review
of John Iliffe, Honour in African History in International Journal of
African Historical
Studies, 2006.
Review
of Ulrich Van der Heyden, Rote Adler an Afrika's Küste: die brandenburgisch-
preussische
Kolonie Grossfriedrichsburg an der westafrikanischen Küste on H-German,
2006.
Review
of Jürgen Zimmerer, Deutsche Herrschaft über Afrikaner: Staatlicher Machtanspruch
und
Wirklichkeit im kolonialen Namibia on
H-German, 2005.
Review
of Karin Schestokat, German Women in Cameroon: Travelogues from Colonial
Times on
H-German,
2004.
Review
of Erick J. Mann, Mikono ya Damu: Hands of Blood: African Mercenaries and
the
Politics
of Conflict in German East Africa, 1888-1914 in Journal of Military History, 2003
Review
of Lora Wildenthal, German Women for Empire, 1884-1945 in African
Studies Review, 2003.
Invited Talks
“Docile
Bodies, Feared Like Gods: Askari and the Punishment Regime in German
Colonial East
Africa,
1905-1914,” Africana Studies Colloquium, Cornell University, March 2007.
“Becoming
Askari: African
Self-Identifications and Military Heritage in the German Colonial
Military,
1889-1918,” IGIS Colloquium, Elliott School of International Affairs, George
Washington
University, Washington, D.C., April 2007.
“‘Auch
sie starben für Kaiser und Reich’: The ‘Loyal Askari’ in Interwar German
Discourse,”
German
History Seminar, SUNY-Buffalo, Buffalo, NY, September 2006.
Panel
Commentator, Society for First World War Studies Conference, Dublin, October
2005.
“‘All
people were barbarians to the askari’: Askari Identity and Honor in the Maji
Maji War,
1905-1907,”
Humboldt Universität African Studies Colloquium, Berlin; and African Studies
Association
Annual Conference, Washington D.C., November 2005.
Selected
Presentations
“Bomani:
Askari and Station Life in German East Africa, 1900-1918,” African
Studies
Association,
San Francisco, November 2006.
“‘Ganz
undenkbar...’: German Responses to
Accusations of Colonial Atrocities in the Interwar
Period,”
German Studies Association, Pittsburgh, October 2006.
“Collaboration
and Justice: Askari and the Law
in German East Africa,” European History
Colloquium,
Cornell University, May 2006.
Research Grants
Berlin
Program for Advanced German and European Studies Fellowship, 2004-2005.
Fulbright
Fellowship, Tanzania, 2003-2004.
German
American Exchange Service (DAAD) Fellowship, 2003-2004 (declined).
Einaudi
Center International Travel Grant, Cornell University, September 2003.
Beatrice
Brown Dissertation Grant, Cornell University, September 2003.
Seymour Bluestone Fellowship, Cornell University, Spring
2008.
Knight
Institute Freshman Writing Seminar Instructor Fellowship, Cornell University,
Fall 2007.
Walter
LaFeber Research Assistantship, Cornell University, June-August 2007.
Provost’s Diversity Fellowship, Cornell University,
January 2007-May 2007.
Knight
Institute Freshman Writing Seminar Instructor Fellowship, Cornell University,
Fall 2006.
Walter
LaFeber Research Assistantship, Cornell University, June 2006-August 2006.
Mellon
Dissertation Completion Fellowship, Cornell University, 2005-2006.
Seymour
Bluestone Fellowship, Cornell University, 2002-2003.
School
of Criticism and Theory, Cornell University, July-August 2002.
Dean of the Faculty Research Grant, United States Air
Force Academy, July 1999.
NEH
Summer Teaching Institute, “Roots: The
African Background of American Culture Through the Atlantic
Slave Trade,” June 1998.
Teaching/professional
Experience
Instructor
Warfare in Africa: Myths and Realities
First-Year Writing Program, Cornell University, Fall
2006 and Fall 2007
Instructor
World History, Military History, African History, History of Women and War
United States Air Force Academy, 1997-2000
intelligence
officer
United States Air Force, April 1991 –
September 2000
Research Interests
Colonial/post-colonial
African history
German colonialism in Africa
Colonial warfare and colonial militaries
Imperial Germany, colonialism, and race
World War I in Africa and Europe
Warfare and gender
Language
Facility
German: fluent
Kiswahili:
proficient
French: read only
Professional
Associations
American Historical Association
African Studies Association
German Studies Association
Society
for First World War Studies