Nicholas Kariuki Githuku
Education:
Ph. D., Department of History, West Virginia University, 15th August 2014.
Mid-Level Professional Development Studies, Rotary International Certificate in Development and Peace & Conflict Studies, Chulalongkorn University, Bangkok –Thailand, 2008.
M.A., Armed Conflict & Peace Studies (History), University of Nairobi, 2005.
B.A., 1st Class Honors, Political Science & Public Administration and History, 2001.
Academic, Policy (Advocacy) and Research Employment:
Assistant Professor, York College, City University of New York, August 27th 2014 –Present.
Graduate Instructor, West Virginia University, 2009–June 2014.
Associate Policy Research & Advocacy Fellow, Foreign Policy in Focus Africa (FPIF) of the Institute for Policy Studies, Washington, D.C in conjunction with the West Virginia Graduate Life & Education Summer Internship Programme, May 2011-April 2012.
Adjunct Faculty, West Virginia Northern Community College, Wheeling, Spring 2012.
Assistant Lecturer (part-time), Department of History, University of Nairobi, 2007-2009.
Expert Research Consultant, “Managing Heritage, Building Peace,” with Dr. Lotte Hughes, Ferguson Centre for African and Asian Studies, Faculty of Arts, Open University, January 2007-July 2009.
Assistant Lecturer (part-time), Department of History, Catholic University of Eastern Africa, 2004-2005.
Researcher/Administrative Assistant, Programme in African Ideals and Institutions, Strathmore University, Nairobi, January 2005 to December 2006.
Archival Researcher, Reverend David Steel: Empire’s Children Documentary Series, Channel 4, United Kingdoms, September –November, 2006.
Courses Taught:
World History to 1500; World History Since 1500; Topics in the History of Post-Colonial Kenya; Africa Since 1800; and West Africa Since 1800.
Courses Taught at York College
Fall 2014 (Four Courses):
HIST 374: Africa and the Atlantic Slave Trade.
HIST 275: African History until 1800.
HIST 108 –Three Worlds: Europe, the Americas and the Third World in Modern Times (2 sections).
Spring 2015 (Three Courses):
HIST 375: Decolonization in West Africa.
HIST 275: African History until 1800.
HIST 108 –Three Worlds: Europe, the Americas and the Third World in Modern Times.
Fall 2015 (Three Courses):
HIST 375: Africa and the Atlantic Slave Trade.
HIST 275: Modern Africa –1884 to the Present.
HIST 108 –Three Worlds: Europe, the Americas and the Third World in Modern Times.
Other teaching interests: Armed Conflict & Peace Studies/War and Society; British National and Imperial History; Economic History of Africa; Decolonization, Development and the Cold War; Eastern Europe Since 1914; Introduction to Social Science; and Regional Surveys of (Eastern and Central) Africa Since the 19th Century.
Academic and other Awards:
The Robert and Wynona Wilkins Scholarship, WVU, 2013-2014.
The British Institute in Eastern Africa Research Grant, December, 2012-February, 2013.
The Rebecca D. and Henry E. Thornburg Doctoral Award, WVU, 2012-2013.
Department of History, Dissertation Fellowship Award, 2012.
WVU Chancellor’s Scholars Fellowship, 2011.
Eberly College of Arts and Sciences Doctoral Student Research Fund, West Virginia University, Summer 2010.
Rotary International World Peace Fellow, 2008.
Joint Initiatives Project Fund, The Tokyo Foundation/The Nippon Foundation, 2006.
Sasakawa Young Leaders Fellowship Fund (SYLFF), 2002-2005.
Research and Conference Presentations:
“Mau Mau Crucible of War: Statehood, National Identity and Politics in Postcolonial Kenya,” Professional Presentation at the Institute of African Studies, Columbia University, 22nd October 2014.
Co-Convener of Panel on “Pasts and Futures: The African State Since the 1950s and into the 21st Century,” at the 13th International African Studies Conference, Moscow, “Society and Politics in Africa: Traditional, Transitional, and New,” at the Institute for African Studies and the Institute for Linguistics of the Russian Academy of Sciences, 27th to 29th May 2014.
Convener of the Panel Entitled, “The View From Below: Incorporating the Work of ‘Local Intellectuals’ in mainstream academia,” at the African Studies Association -UK Biennial Conference to be held at the University of Sussex, 9th to 11th September 2014.
The 56th Annual Meeting of the African Studies Association (ASA), “White Man’s Land: Colonial Foundations and Legal Architecture of the Kenyan State and its Discontents,” Baltimore (MD), 21st-24th November 2013. This paper was first presented at the African Studies Association (ASA-United Kingdom), University of Leeds, 7th & 8th September 2012.
“Mau Mau Crucible of War: Statehood, National Identity and Politics in Postcolonial Kenya,” at:
- The 5th Kenya Scholars & Studies Association Conference, Bowling Green State University, 5th-6th September 2013.
- Africa Research Forum, Department of History, Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge, United Kingdom, 6th August 2013.
- The 55th Annual Meeting of the African Studies Association (ASA), Philadelphia (PA) 29th November to 1st December 2012.
“Kenyan ‘Procreatocracy?’ Ethnic politics and Tyranny of Numbers,” at the “African History Conference –Beyond the boundaries: Toyin Falola and African Historiography,” University of North Carolina Wilmington, 12th October 2013.
Robert Maxon & Kariuki Githuku, “Mchezo wa Siasa: A Critical Overview of the Politics of Soccer and Soccer in Kenyan Politics”, Kenya Scholars and Studies Association Conference (KESSA), 7th & 8th September, 2012.
“Forgiving is the Easy Part: Settling Historical Injustices in Post-Conflict Contexts –The Case of Kenya and South Africa,” at the Public Forgiveness in Post-Conflict contexts Conference, Radboud University Nijmegen Center for Ethics, Nijmegen –The Netherlands, 4th-6th March 2010.
Panel Speaker, “The application of Media for Peace Education: University Leadership,” 2nd UNESCO Global Forum on the Power of Peace, 28th -30th October, 2009.
Expert Research Consultant, “Managing Heritage, Building Peace: A Comparative Study of Museums and Memorialization in Kenya and South Africa,” the Ferguson Centre for African and Asian Studies, Faculty of Arts, the Open University & the United States International University, Nairobi, 2006 -2009.
“The DNA of (Good) Leadership: Can we Decipher It?,” at the Human Rights and Creative Leadership Conference, Ruhr-Universität Bochum, Germany, 24th-28th June 2007.
Reverend David Steel, Empire’s Children, Archival Researcher (Kenya National Archives) for Wall To Wall (Documentary/Film), 8-9 Spring Place, London NW5 3ER, 2006.
“Resource Management in Protected Areas and its Impact on Human Development: A Comparative Sustainable Development Research [the Mau Forest Complex (Kenya) and the Serra da Estrela Natural Park (Portugal)]” 2006.
“Crime and Punishment in Kenya,” Presented at the 3rd Strathmore University Conference on Politics and the Common Good, November 2005.
British Colonial Policies to Curb the Mau Mau Rebellion (Kenya National Archives Research Project) for the Programme in African Ideals and Institutions, Strathmore University, 2005 -2006.
M.A. Thesis, “Ethnic Conflict and its Implications for Social and Economic Development in Kenya, 1963-2004,” 2004.
“Capitalizing on Cultural Sensitivities: A Cultural Approach to Conflict Prevention, Resolution and Harmonious Co-existence,” presented at the SYLFF Conference on Multicuturalism: Capitalizing on the Wealth of Diversity held between 22nd –26th June 2003, at the American University in Cairo, Cairo-Egypt.
Peer Reviewed publications
Book, Mau Mau Crucible of War: Statehood, National Identity and Politics in Postcolonial Kenya (Lanham: Lexington Books, 2016).
“Unfolding of Britain’s and Kenya’s Complex Tango: An Uneasy Revisit to a Critical Past and its Implications,” in The Trial of Dedan Kimathi: Hidden Histories and Critical Engagements (ed.) Julie MacArthur (Athens: Ohio University Press, 2016): in press.
“Pax Africana –The Mazruiana Vision and Dream of Africa Revisited: Its Contemporary Relevance, Application and Implications,” in forthcoming edited volume honoring Professor Ali A. Mazrui (2016)
Non-Peer Reviewed publications (Book Reviews and Blog Articles)
Short Story, “The Eternal Moment of Love,” in the literary KUT Journal, 14th September 2015.
Blog Article, “U.S.-Africa Relations during Obama’s Watch: The Settling of Dusky Midnight’s Mist?,” and The Africa Report & African Perspectives Website, 9th June 2015.
Blog Article, “The US Needs Kenya More than Kenya Needs the US,” African Perspectives Website, 3rd June 2015.
Paper, “Glimpses of Total War: A Historiographical Review of a Concept and its Buffeted Career, 1618 –Present,” African Perspectives Website, October 2014.
Paper, “Fire over Courage –Arty’s March to the Front: The Great War and the Transformation of Warfare,” African Perspectives Website, October 2014.
Paper, “Scanning Beneath the Ubiquitous Radar of European Intellectual Thought: The Quintessential Doubling and Plurality of Difference,” African Perspectives Website, October 2014.
Paper, “Is Bernard Porter the Ultimate ‘Imperial Britain-bashing’ Party-pooper? Will the ‘Real Imperialists’ Please Stand Up?” African Perspectives Website, October 2014.
Paper, “Remembering Ambivalent Pasts: World War II in Memory –Selectivity, Accountability and Functionality,” African Perspectives Website, October 2014.
Paper, “British Histories: A Historiographical Map Come Full Circle,” African Perspectives Website, October 2014.
Book Review, “German” Roots of a Culturally Homogeneous Polish Nation-state: Wartime and Post-war Reverse Ethnic Cleansing,” African Perspectives Website, October 2014.
Book Review, “People Power –Seeds of ’89 ‘Anticommunist’ Revolution: Opposition Youth Movements in Central Europe,” African Perspectives Website, October 2014.
Book Review, “Hush –We Drank From the Same Poisonous Vial: Blind and Deaf to War Crimes,” African Perspectives Website, October 2014.
Book Review, “The Fateful Hungarian ’56 Revolution: A Cause Lost in the Fog of the Cold War?,” African Perspectives Website, October 2014.
Book Review, “Peripheral Urban Russocentrism: Post-war Reconstruction of the Ukrainian “City of Russian Glory,” African Perspectives Website, October 2014.
Book Review, “Unlikely Frontline City, Impossible Choices: National Socialism, Right-wing Extremism and Anticommunism in Budapest,” African Perspectives Website, October 2014.
Book Review, “Vouchsafing Grace of Military Pasts: Memory, State-building and National Identity,” African Perspectives Website, October 2014.
Book Review, “Vanity and Vogue in Old Odessa: Urban Fashionability, Morality and Class Identity,” African Perspectives Website, October 2014.
Book Review, “When Zagreb and Sarajevo Faced-off: National Croatian Imperatives Versus Local Prerogatives,” African Perspectives Website, October 2014.
Book Review, “Spartak Football Club: Unofficial Soviet Workers’ Histories of ‘Resistance,’” African Perspectives Website, October 2014.
Book Review, “Murder at the Door: Polish-Jew Relations during World War II,” African Perspectives Website, October 2014.
Book Review, “Mixed Jewish Interethnic Fortunes: Civic Integration in 19th Century Kiev,” African Perspectives Website, October 2014.
Book Review, “Standing Grand Against all Odds: From Improbable Defense to Offence, From Moscow to Berlin,” African Perspectives Website, October 2014.
Blog Article, “How to Play ‘Father’: Raila’s Lost Moment?,” African Perspectives Website, 3rd September 2014.
Blog Article, “Dearth of the Political Party in Kenya,” African Perspectives Website, 3rd September 2014.
Article, “Votes that Bind: Ethnic Politics and the Tyranny of Numbers,” Institute for African Studies, Columbia University, Blog: Africa in the World, March 17, 2013.
Blog Article, “Heal the World: A Personal Reflection on the Sandy Hook Elementary School Shooting,” Desmond Tutu Peace Foundation, December 25, 2012.
Blog Article, “EU Nobel Prize: A Call for a Greater Structural Peace,” Desmond Tutu Peace Foundation, October 14, 2012.
Book Review, An Unconventional Review for an Eccentric Book,” Pambazuka News, Issue 598: Pambazuka Voices for Freedom and Justice, September 19, 2012.
College and University Science
Member of the Academic Standards Committee (meets twice a month).
Member of the York College Teacher Education Unit Council (TEUC): meets once a semester and/or whenever necessary.
College/University Professional Development Activities
Attended three Writing Accross the Curriculum (WAC) Seminars (Spring 2014).
Future research interests broadly defined and long-term:
Climate Change and Global Security (conflict and the environment); International Migration; Race, Gender and Globalization; Comparative Study of Citizenship, Statehood vs. Stateness (State-Building); and local and national politics of selected African countries especially those with significant Muslim populations.
Specific short and medium-term research:
“’52 Minds on Kenya’s Destiny: The People Speak,” documentary project, based upon, and inspired by, my book, Mau Mau Crucible of War: Statehood, National Identity and Politics in Postcolonial Kenya, June 2017.
The Legal Illegality of Empire: A Critique of European Imperial Conquest, Occupation and Colonial Possessions, Edited volume project, October 2017.
A Man for All Seasons? Jomo Kenyatta in Time and Space, Book Project, 2019.
References
Dr. Robert Maxon, Professor (dissertation research supervisor), West Virginia University
E-mail: rmaxon@wvu.edu
Telephone (Office): +1 304 293 2421
Dr. Robert Blobaum, dissertation committee member, West Virginia University
E-mail: Robert.Blobaum@mail.wvu.edu
Dr. Joseph Hodge, Professor/Chair, Department of History, West Virginia University
E-mail: joseph.hodge@mail.wvu.edu
Telephone (Office): 304 293 9327.
