Ishmael Annang is an historian of society and environment in Africa and the African Atlantic. His research and teaching interests are on topics/themes including agricultural resources, racial capitalism, diplomacy, health and healing, gender, riverine systems, and the oral/material methodology. These interests have informed his ongoing first book project tentatively titled "Growing Food, Eating Medicine: Agricultural Festivals and Spiritual Ecology in Africa's Gold Coast (Ghana)." The project draws on oral and material archives to study how humans and nonhuman (spirit) beings in the Gold Coast creatively instituted agricultural festivals around Atlantic domesticates and food products such as maize, rice, cassava, millet and cattle while resolving conditions of environmental stress and sociopolitical violence during the Columbian Exchange and the transatlantic slave trade. A spin-off article from this project has appeared in the Journal of West African History.
At Mount Holyoke College, Annang teaches two survey courses on the early/precolonial and modern histories of Africa. He also teaches other specialized courses in the related fields of African history, environmental history, and Atlantic history.
In addition to being an historian, Annang is a certified young adult coach/mentor, a Zumba enthusiast, and a proud fan of the Black Stars, Ghana's flagship soccer team.
Education
- Ph.D., Georgetown University
- M.Phil., B.A., University of Ghana
