Biography
My research interests center on the intersections of the Cold War and decolonization in Congo-Kinshasa and Angola. More specifically, I am interested in the politics of militarism, conflicts in and across borderlands, negotiations of the nation-state, and the political economy of foreign intervention in Central Africa. Currently, I am exploring the afterlives of the Katangese secession (1960-63), noting how the persisting threat of provincial rebellion was an important calculus in affecting both American and Congolese decision-making from 1964 to 1967 given the region’s vast mineral wealth and highly-trained military loyalists.
Education
B.A., University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill, 2024
Field
- U.S./North American
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
- 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)