Contact Information
801 S. Wright St.
801 S Wright
M/C 322
Champaign, IL 61820
Biography
I have over a decade of teaching experience, including seven years in higher education at the University of Malawi. As a historian of South and East African urban histories, my work primarily focuses on Malawi.
Research Interests
My research interests lie at the intersection of youth studies, popular cultures and leisure, and the dynamic relationship between space and identity in African urban contexts.
Research Description
My current research explores how educated Africans navigated colonial urban spaces to build community and assert identity within the racially segregated cities of colonial Malawi. Centering on urban associations and community centers as key social infrastructures, the study examines how both African elites and colonial authorities used these spaces to advance different agendas. The research foregrounds class—not just race—as a pivotal identity marker shaping urban life in twentieth-century Malawi.
Education
MA in African Social History, University of Malawi
BEd. in History, University of Malawi
Awards and Honors
List of Teachers Ranked as Excellent, Spring 2024, Fall 2024
Dr. Charles DeBenedetti Award for Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching, 2025
Courses Taught
HIST 100: Global History (Fall 2020, Spring 2021, Spring 2022, Summer 2023, Winter 2024, Summer 2025)
HIST 104: Black Music (Fall 2021, Summer 2024)
HIST 172: US History Since 1877 (Spring 2024)
HIST 274: The United States and the World since 1917(Fall 2024)
Recent Publications
Mandala, Ruth Veida. Review of Colonial Geography: Race and Space in German East Africa, 1884–1905, by Matthew Unangst. H-Environment, H-Net Reviews, July 2024.
Mandala, Ruth. "John McCracken's Contribution to Malawi's Urban History." In Politics, Christianity and Society in Malawi: Essays in Honor of John McCracken edited by Wapulumuka Mulwafu and Kenneth Ross,396-418. Mzuzu: Mzuni Press, 2020.