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Ruth Veida Mandala

Profile picture for Ruth Veida Mandala

Contact Information

110 Coble Hall
801 S. Wright St.
801 S Wright
M/C 322
Champaign, IL 61820
PhD Candidate
Graduate Teaching Assistant

Biography

I have over ten years of experience in teaching, with seven of those spent in higher education at the University of Malawi. I study (South and East)  African Urban Histories focusing on Malawi. 

Research Interests

My research interests include youth studies, histories of popular cultures and leisure, and the relationship between space and identity. 

Research Description

My current research investigates how educated Africans navigated colonial urban spaces to build community and foster identity amidst the racial ordering of space in colonial Malawi. Focusing on urban associations and community centers as social spaces used by the educated elite and colonial authorities alike to different ends, the study highlights class as a significant identity other than race that shaped the urban experience in twentieth-century Malawi.

Education

MA African Social History, University of Malawi

BEd. History, University of Malawi

Awards and Honors

List of Teachers Ranked as Excellent, Spring 2024

Courses Taught

HIST 100: Global History (Fall 2020, Spring 2021, Spring 2022, Summer 2023)

HIST 104: Black Music (Fall 2021, Summer 2024)

HIST 172: US History Since 1877

Recent Publications

Mandala, Ruth Veida. Review of Unangst, Matthew, Colonial Geography: Race and Space in German East Africa, 1884-1905.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.