Staff in African Studies and Anthropology 

At Birmingham you will be taught by staff who have first-hand experience of the continent - they have lived and taught in Africa, and continue to carry out research there.

Head of Department

Dr Jessica Johnson

Dr Jessica Johnson

Associate Professor in Social Anthropology and African Studies
Head of Department of African Studies and Anthropology

I am a social anthropologist specialising in Southern Africa, with a particular focus on the anthropology of gender and law in Malawi.

Academic staff

Dr Morenikeji Asaaju

Dr Morenikeji Asaaju

Cadbury Postdoctoral Fellow in African Studies

I am a historian of Africa with particular thematic interest in gender, marriage, family, slavery, emancipation, and the slave trade. My interest also lies in understanding the colonial political and legal changes in twentieth century Africa. My doctoral thesis examined changes in gender and marital relations in colonial Abeokuta, south-western Nigeria.

Dr Marco Di Nunzio

Dr Marco Di Nunzio

Associate Professor in Urban Anthropology

Marginality, development, the politics of existence and the right to the city  

Dr Nathan Dobson

Dr Nathan Dobson

Teaching Fellow

I am a Social Anthropologist with a PhD from the University of California, Irvine. I taught Anthropology and African Studies at the University of Florida and the University of Birmingham. I have experience working on research projects on mobile money (financial inclusion), Islam in Africa and internet shutdowns (digital governance). My own research interests are in political anthropology, ...

Dr Leslie Fesenmyer

Dr Leslie Fesenmyer

Assistant Professor in Social Anthropology and African Studies

I am a social anthropologist whose research interests include transnational migration, kinship, belonging, and religion (especially Pentecostalism).I have pursued these interests in the United Kingdom and Kenya and in the context of migration between the two countries.  

Dr Juliet Gilbert

Dr Juliet Gilbert

Assistant Professor in Social Anthropology and African Studies

I am an anthropologist with a particular interest in youth studies, religion (especially Pentecostalism), insecure livelihoods, and aspects of popular culture (fashion, beauty pageants, mobile phones). My doctorate thesis focused on young women’s livelihoods in Calabar, southeastern Nigeria.

Dr Sarah Howard

Dr Sarah Howard

Research Fellow

I am a social anthropologist who has carried out long-term ethnographic research in Ethiopia on public service, labour, development and the everyday state.

Dr Gerald Chikozho Mazarire

Assistant Professor of African History

I am a historian of Southern Africa with a special interest in various forms of African orality as they are expressed by different communities in rendering their experiences over time and space. I work mainly on Zimbabwe where I have used predominantly oral methods to trace ‘pre-colonial’ identities, nationalism, liberation memories and land restitution struggles.

Dr Fuad Musallam

Dr Fuad Musallam

Assistant Professor in Social Anthropology

I am a social anthropologist who focuses on activism, labour, the imagination, and how people come together to form community. I have done most of my research in Lebanon's capital city, Beirut, where I work with Lebanese political activists challenging the political system and with migrant workers building solidarity in the face of racialised inequality.

Professor Olukoya Ogen

Visiting Senior Research Fellow
Professor of History, Osun State University, Osogbo, Nigeria

Dr Anthony Pickles

Dr Anthony Pickles

Assistant Professor in Social Anthropology

I am a social anthropologist with interests in economy, politics, digital technology, societal transformation and the future. I have done research in Papua New Guinea, the UK and the USA. My published work is often about gambling, but also anthropological theory, corruption, spreadsheets, markets, money and even pockets. I am currently working on a project about political gamblers influence on ...

Dr Nathalie Raunet

Dr Nathalie Raunet

Assistant Professor

I am an interdisciplinary scholar in African Studies focusing on West African history, anthropology and politics. My research interests include belonging, citizenship, authoritarianism, transnationalism and borders. My work focuses more specifically on the making and unmaking of belonging and citizenship in the Ghana-Togo borderlands, cross-border voting and elections, and transnational ...

Honorary staff