Emmanuella Amoh

Areas of Specialization

Gold Coast/Ghana, Colonialism, Postcolonial Politics, Pan-Africanism, African Diaspora, and Black Women

Education

Ph.D., Purdue University
M.S., Illinois State University
B.A., University of Ghana, Legon

Academic Interests & Research Narrative

While my academic interests cover Sub-Saharan Africa, I am an African and Diaspora African historian. My current research, which sits at the intersection of Decolonization, the Civil Rights Movement, and the Cold War, follows Ghanaian and African American intellectuals and their reconfiguration of Blackness as a tool for advancing Black liberation and development in the postwar years. I highlight the changing and overlapping meaning of Blackness in Ghana and the United States, as well as the complexity surrounding national and racial identities within Pan-Africanism.
Additionally, I am interested in transnational history, particularly about Africa and the United States. My interest in transnationalism informs my research and teaching, where I teach my students to see the global connections in our everyday experiences, and to have an expansive view not only of Africa but their world and the world around them.

Why I Chose Baylor

Baylor University’s emphasis on research, teaching, faith, and mentorship aligns with my personal development as an educator, scholar, and woman of faith. The school provides an exciting environment to collaborate with scholars in helping students achieve their academic and professional goals. It also supports faculty development, as such, I am excited to be part of this intellectual community. I look forward to working with students, staff, and faculty to advance Baylor University’s traditions of academic excellence.

Selected Publications

Articles

“Disrupting Race and Nation: African Students’ Nationalism in the Postwar United States, 1951–1961,” The Journal of African American History, volume 110, number 1, (winter 2025)

“Revisiting Kwame Nkrumah’s African Personality: The Diaspora Context and the Making of Ghana Television.” Ghana Studies Journal, Vol. 25 (2023)

“The Dilemma of Diasporic Africans: Adger Emerson Player and Anti-Americanism in  Kwame Nkrumah’s Ghana.” African Studies Review, Vol. 65, No.3 (September 2022)

Book Review

Cross-Border Cosmopolitans: The Making of A Pan-African North America by Wendell Nii Laryea Adjetey, in American Historical Review (September 2024)                                  

The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration In the Age of Colorblindness by Michelle Alexander, in Ethnic and Third World Literatures Review of Books, Vol. 23 (Spring 2023)   

At Penpoint: African Literatures, Postcolonial Studies and the Cold War by Monica Popescu. Ethnic and Third World Literatures Review of Books, Vol. 22 (Spring 2022)                               

Selected Activities

Awards

• Winner of 2022 African Studies Review Best Article (2023)
• Purdue College of Liberal Arts Distinguished Dissertation Award (2023)

Grants

• West African Research Association, Travel Grant (2022)
• Purdue Research Foundation, Summer Research Grant (2021)

Fellowships

• Ross Fellowship, Purdue University (2019)

Regular Course Offerings

Undergraduate: 

HIS 1300 | United States in Global Perspectives —Americanism in Sub-Saharan Africa

HIS 3318 | The History of Modern Africa

HIS 4316 | The African Diaspora