Ishmael 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 such as maize, rice, cassava, millet and cattle while resolving conditions of environmental stress and sociopolitical violence during the Columbian Exchange. A spin-off article from this project has appeared in the Journal of West African History.
At Mount Holyoke College, Ishmael teaches two survey courses on the early/precolonial and modern histories of Africa. He also teaches specialized courses including Society & Environment in Africa, Slavery & the Slave Trade in Africa and its Diasporas, and The Nonhuman Atlantic, 1400-1800.
In addition to being an historian, Ishmael is a certified young adult coach/mentor, a Zumba enthusiast, and a proud fan of the Black Stars, Ghana's flagship soccer team.