Neil Kodesh
Assistant Professor

eMail: kodesh@wisc.edu
Phone: (608)263-2395
Office: 5114 Mosse Humanities
Mailbox: 5023 Mosse Humanities

Curriculum Vitae: View PDF

Office Hours: Mondays 10:30 - 12:00

Education: PhD: Northwestern University; MA: Northwestern University; BA: Pomona College

Bio Sketch:

I’m a historian of precolonial East Africa with a particular emphasis on the Great Lakes region.  My research and teaching interests center on health and healing, political complexity, and the use of oral sources for writing early African history.  I am currently completing a manuscript on the history of clanship, public healing, and collective well-being in Buganda from the 17th through the 20th centuries. 

Selected Publications:

• "Networks of Knowledge: Clanship and Collective Well-Being in Buganda," The Journal of African History (forthcoming).
• "History from the Healer's Shrine: Genre, Historical Imagination, and Early Ganda History," Comparative Studies in Society and History, 49, 3 (July 2007): 527-552.
• "Renovating Tradition: The Discourse of Succession in Colonial Buganda," The International Journal of African Historical Studies, 34:3 (2001), 511-542.

Awards:

• Institute for Research in the Humanities Residential Fellowship, UW-Madison, Spring 2008
• UW-Madison, Graduate School Research Grant, Summer 2007
• UW-Madison, Graduate School Research Grant, Summer 2006
• Institutional Nominee, Northwestern University, Council of Graduate Schools/University Microfilms International Distinguished Dissertation Award in the Humanities and Fine Arts, 2005
• Harold Perkin Prize for Best Doctoral Dissertation, History Department, Northwestern University, 2005
• Charlotte W. Newcombe Doctoral Dissertation Fellowship, 2004-05
• Fulbright-IIE Grant, 2001-02
• Social Science Research Council International Dissertation Field Research Fellowship, 2001-02
• Social Science Research Council International Predissertation Fellowship, 2000-01

Courses Taught:

Lecture Courses:

• History 377 - History of Afirca 1500-1875 - Syllabus 2007 (pdf)
• History 444 - History of East Africa

Undergraduate Seminars:

• History 600 - Advanced Seminar in History - Topics: " The New South Africa: The Challenges of Transition in a Post-Apartheid World"; "Race and Ethnicity in 20^th -Century Africa"

Graduate Courses:

• History 751: Proseminar in African History
• History/Anthropology 774: Methods for Research in Non-Literate Societies
• History 861 - Seminar - History of Africa - Topics: "Selected Topics in African History"; "History of Health and Healing in Africa"