African Studies Workshop Featuring Sarah Balakrishnan

Presenting: Colonizing the Underworld: Cemeteries and the Necropolitics of Property in Colonial Ghana

Sarah Balakrishnan is an incoming Assistant Professor of History and African & African American Studies at the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities. She has held a Presidential Postdoctoral Fellowship from the University of Minnesota, a postdoctoral fellowship from the Carter G Woodson Institute at the University of Virginia, and a residential research fellowship from the University of Cambridge. She received her PhD in African History from Harvard University in 2020, with a secondary concentration in Anthropology. Her research analyzes the imperial encounter in Southern Ghana through changes to land, space, and the political imagination, focusing on the emergence of carceral complexes, enclosures, and confining structures. Her essays have featured in The Journal of African History, The Journal of Social History, The International Journal of African Historical Studies among other venues

Discussant: Naaborko Sackeyfio-Lenoch, (Dartmouth College)

A week in advance, the presenter’s paper will be circulated through the Harvard African Studies Workshop listserv. It is assumed that everyone has read the paper before the workshop.  After presentation and commentary, Workshop attendees are invited to engage in critique and discussion, under the moderation of the Workshop Chairs. 

Register for the Spring 2022 workshops here.

View workshop recordings here: https://vimeo.com/showcase/2369529

ORGANIZER(S):  Harvard University Center for African Studies 
EVENT WEBSITE:  https://africa.harvard.edu/african-studies-workshop-0