Department of History

Yonathan Taye

Pronouns: he/him/his

Email: ymtaye@wisc.edu

Address:
Advisors: Monica Kim, Marissa Moorman

Yonathan Taye headshot

Biography

My research interests explore the intersections of the Cold War, US empire, and decolonization in Congo-Kinshasa and Angola. More specifically, I am interested in the politics of nationalism, state formation, militarism, and the political economy of foreign intervention in Central and southern Africa. My MA thesis explores and recontextualizes the origins of the Mobutu dictatorship in Congo, challenging scholarly convention of the general’s 1965 coup d’état as exclusively a Cold War story and highlighting its roots in deeper decolonial questions tracing back to the moment of Congolese independence. At the same time, I am also currently working on pieces exploring African-American perceptions of African slaving practices and its effects on Black internationalist solidarity, as well as a family-rooted oral history exploring experiences of repression and forced migration during the Ethiopian military dictatorship which ruled the country from 1974 to 1991.

Beyond my passion for my work, I also enjoy lifting weights, volunteering in the community, watching the Dallas Mavericks/Wings lose basketball games, and listening widely to the newest hip-hop, pop, and rock music releases.

Education

M.A., University of Wisconsin-Madison, 2026
B.A., University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill, 2024

Field

  • African History
  • U.S./North American History

MA Title

  • “The Specter of Katanga: Moïse Tshombe, the United States, and the Rise of Mobutu, 1964-67”

Selected Publications

  • Yonathan Taye, “A Revolutionary Counterrevolution: Thomas Sankara, Burkina Faso, and African Radicalism in Context, 1983-87,” Global Africana Review 8, no. 1 (2024): 19-30.

Selected Awards

  • Middlebury Language School Scholar, Summer 2026
  • Community of Graduate Research Scholars Fellowship, AY 2025-26
  • Foreign Language Area Studies Fellowship, Summer 2025
  • Kemper Knapp University Fellowship, AY 2024-25

Professional Affiliations

  • African Studies Association (ASA)
  • Congolese Studies Association (CSA)
  • Society for Historians of American Foreign Relations (SHAFR)