Paul T. Zeleza

Paul Tiyambe Zeleza is dean of the Bellarmine College of Liberal Arts, and Presidential Professor of African American Studies and History, Loyola Marymount University, Los Angeles.

He previously was head of the Department of African American Studies and the Liberal Arts and Sciences Distinguished Professor at the University of Illinois at Chicago, director of the Center for African Studies and Professor of History and African Studies at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, and principal of Lady Eaton College at Trent University. He has taught at universities in the United States, Canada, Kenya, Jamaica, and Malawi, and is currently honorary professor at the University of Cape Town.

He has also worked as a consultant for the Ford and MacArthur foundations and as an adviser to the United Nations Research Institute for Social Development. He is a past president of the African Studies Association (2008-2009), the largest professional association in the world dedicated to the study of Africa and the African Diaspora. 

Zeleza earned his B.A. from the University of Malawi and an M.A from the University of London, where he studied African history and international relations. He holds his Ph.D. in economic history from Dalhousie University in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada.

Zeleza’s academic work has crossed traditional boundaries, ranging from economic and intellectual history to gender, human rights, diaspora and cultural studies. He has published scores of articles and authored or edited more than two dozen books, several of which have won international awards including Africa’s most prestigious book prize, the Noma Award for his books A Modern Economic History of Africa and Manufacturing African Studies and Crises. He also edits The Zeleza Post, an online source of news and commentary on the Pan-African world (www.zeleza.com).

His most recent book is titled Barack Obama and African Diasporas: Dialogues and Dissensions (Ohio University Press, 2009). He is currently working on a multi-volume global history of African diasporas.