Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.)
History
The University of Chicago
2003
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Staff
Staff
Benjamin Talton
Executive Director
Department/Office
- Moorland Spingarn Research Center
Additional Positions
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ProfessorHistory
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AI Advisory Council MemberAI Advisory Council
Biography
Benjamin Talton, Ph.D., is the Executive Director of the Moorland-Spingarn Research Center and Professor in the Department of History at Howard University. He is an historian who researches and writes about culture and politics in Africa and the African diaspora. He earned his BA in history at Howard University and his doctorate, also in history, at the University of Chicago.
Prior to joining Howard, Talton was Professor of History at Temple University. He has also taught African History at Hofstra University and Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology in Kumasi, Ghana.
A highly respected author, Talton has published three books: The Politics of Social Change in Ghana: The Konkomba Struggle for Political Equality (Palgrave 2010); Black Subjects in Africa and its Diasporas: Race and Gender in Research and Writing (Palgrave 2011), which he co-edited with Dr. Quincy Mills of the University of Maryland; and, most recently, In This Land of Plenty: Mickey Leland and Africa in American Politics (Penn Press 2019), which won the 2020 Wesley-Logan Prize from the American Historical Association. Among his current projects is co-editing Volume III of the Cambridge History of the African Diaspora, with Monique Bedasse and Nemata Blyden, and, chief-editor of all three of the series’ volumes, Michael Gomez.
Talton’s work has also appeared in numerous peer-reviewed journals and popular media outlets, including The Washington Post, Jacobin, Current History, the Journal of Asian and African Studies, The African Studies Review, The Conversation, Ghana Studies, and Africa Is A Country.
Talton serves on the editorial board of the American Historical Review, the leading History academic journal. He is a former editor of African Studies Review, the leading North American peer-reviewed African Studies journal, and serves on the advisory board for New York University’s Center for the Study of Africa and the African Diaspora (CSAAD). Dr. Talton is a past president of the Ghana Studies Association and a former member of the executive board for the Association for the Study of the Worldwide African Diaspora (ASWAD).
Education & Expertise
Education
Bachelor of Arts (B.A.)
History
Howard University
1996
Research
Research
Funding
Principal Investigator:
Project: The Black Press Archive Digitization Project.
Funder: The Jonathan Logan Family Foundation.
Amount: $2 Million
Duration: 5 years
Accomplishments
Accomplishments
Wesley-Logan Book Prize for African Diaspora History by the American Historical Association, 2020
Pauli Murray Book Prize Finalist of the African American Intellectual History Society, 2020
Featured News
Featured News
Read: Washington Business Journal | OpenAI taps Howard University for NextGenAI research and education consortium
Read: The Washington Post | Howard University acquires landmark collection of Gordon Parks photos
Publications and Presentations
Publications and Presentations
In This Land of Plenty
In This Land of Plenty: Mickey Leland and Africa in American Politics
Exploring the links between political activism, electoral politics, and international affairs, Benjamin Talton not only details Leland's political career but also examines African Americans' successes and failures in influencing U.S. foreign policy toward African and other Global South countries.
Black Subjects in Africa and Its Diasporas
Black Subjects in Africa and Its Diasporas: Race and Gender in Research and Writing
Through the research and experiences of 16 scholars whose native homes span ten countries, this collection shifts the discussion of belonging and affinity within Africa and its diaspora toward local perceptions and the ways in which these notions are asserted or altered.
Politics of Social Change in Ghana
Politics of Social Change in Ghana: The Konkomba Struggle for Political Equality
With Ghana's colonial and postcolonial politics as a backdrop, this book explores the ways in which historically marginalized communities have defined and redefined themselves to protect their interests and compete politically and economically with neighbouring ethnic groups.
Black Americans have long led the global battle against white supremacy
Black Americans have long led the global battle against white supremacy
Defeating racism is struggle that goes beyond American borders
The radical roots of ‘the Squad’
The radical roots of ‘the Squad’
How Mickey Leland and the Congressional Black Caucus paved the way for today’s progressive politics
Kill Rats and Stop Plague
Kill Rats and Stop Plague: Race and Public Health in Post-Conquest Kumasi
The outbreak of bubonic plague in Kumasi from March 1924 until March 1925 killed 145 people and contributed to significant social and political changes in the city. In this article, I reconstruct the events that surrounded the epidemic, particularly British officials’ responses and efforts to end it, to argue that the epidemic grew out of Kumasi’s integration into the British Empire and capitalist system and therefore must be examined within the context of global histories of disease, empire, and capitalism. I show that while British officials saved lives and ended the epidemic with relatively few deaths, they also exploited the medical crisis to remake Kumasi politically, socially, and spatially as a colonial city governed largely around issues of trade, sanitation, and public health.
The Mandelas at Harlem’s Africa Square
The Mandelas at Harlem’s Africa Square
The Mandelas and Africa's place in African American politics and popular culture.
Obama could have done more for Africa
Obama could have done more for Africa by supporting pro-democracy protests
Land to the Tiller
Land to the Tiller: Hunger and the End of Monarchy in Ethiopia from Food in Zones of Conflict: Cross-Disciplinary Perspectives
