Jacob Tropp
John Spencer Professor of African Studies
- Office
- Axinn Center 341
- Tel
- (802) 443-3250
- jtropp@middlebury.edu
- Office Hours
- Spring 2024: Monday and Thursday, 11:30 AM - 12:45 PM, or by appointment.
Jacob Tropp has taught in the History Department since 1999. He received his B.A. from Haverford College and his Ph.D. in African history, with a secondary field in Native American history, at the University of Minnesota, where he was a funded scholar in the MacArthur Interdisciplinary Program on Global Change, Sustainability, and Justice. His dissertation research on social and environmental history in the Eastern Cape of South Africa was the basis for his 2006 monograph Natures of Colonial Change: Environmental Relations in the Making of the Transkei (Ohio University Press) as well as several articles published in African history journals. Over the past several years, his research has concentrated on the transnational dimensions of particular Native American histories in the mid- to late 20th century – focusing on health, the environment, and development. This work has appeared in the Journal of Global History, Comparative Studies in Society and History, and the Journal of World History, and has been supported by the American Philosophical Society, the American Council of Learned Societies, and visiting fellowships at the Centre for Humanities Research, University of the Western Cape (Bellville, South Africa) and the Rachel Carson Center (Munich, Germany). At Middlebury he teaches a wide range of courses related to African history, from introductory survey courses on early and modern Africa to topical seminars on women and gender, human-environmental interactions, popular culture, everyday life in South Africa, and liberation struggles in southern Africa.
Courses Taught
ENVS 0500
Upcoming
Independent Study
Course Description
Independent Study
In this course, students (non-seniors) carry out an independent research or creative project on a topic pertinent to the relationship between humans and the environment. The project, carried out under the supervision of a faculty member with related expertise who is appointed in or affiliated with the Environmental Studies Program, must involve a significant amount of independent research and analysis. The expectations and any associated final products will be defined in consultation with the faculty advisor. Students may enroll in ENVS 0500 no more than twice for a given project. (Approval only)
Terms Taught
ENVS 0700
Upcoming
Senior Independent Study
Course Description
Senior Independent Study
In this course, seniors complete an independent research or creative project on a topic pertinent to the relationship between humans and the environment. During the term prior to enrolling in ENVS 0700, a student must discuss and agree upon a project topic with a faculty advisor who is appointed in or affiliated with the Environmental Studies Program and submit a brief project proposal to the Director of Environmental Studies for Approval. The expectations and any associated final products will be defined in consultation with the faculty advisor. Students may enroll in ENVS 0700 as a one-term independent study OR up to twice as part of a multi-term project, including as a lead-up to ENVS 0701 (ES Senior Thesis) or ENVS 0703 (ES Senior Integrated Thesis). (Senior standing; Approval only)
Terms Taught
FYSE 1247
Everyday Life in South Africa
Course Description
Everyday Life in South Africa, 1948-Present
In this seminar we will explore some of the social worlds of South Africans amid the country's recent decades of turbulent and dramatic change. We will look at how different groups within the nation's diverse population have understood and experienced the rise of the apartheid system, its demise, and its legacies in their "everyday" lives and interactions. We will draw from various sources - non-fiction, fiction, film, music, and other forms of popular culture - to interpret these social dynamics and their ongoing significance in a post-apartheid society. 3 hrs. sem.
Terms Taught
Requirements
HIST 0113
History of Africa to 1800
Course Description
History of Africa To 1800
This course offers an introductory survey of African history from earliest times to 1800. Through lectures, discussions, readings, and films, we will explore Africa’s complex and diverse pre-colonial past. Themes examined in the course include development of long-distance trade networks, the linkages between ecological change and social dynamics, the formation of large pre-colonial states, and the transatlantic slave trade and its impact on social and economic relations within Africa. A broader concern in the course is how we have come to understand the meaning of “Africa” itself and what is at stake in interpreting Africa’s pre-colonial history. Pre-1800. 3 hrs. lect./disc.
Terms Taught
Requirements
HIST 0114
Upcoming
History of Modern Africa
Course Description
History of Modern Africa
We begin looking at revolutions in the early 19th century and the transformations surrounding the slave trade. Next we examine the European colonization of the continent, exploring how diverse interventions into Africans' lives had complex effects on political authority, class and generational dynamics, gender relations, ethnic and cultural identities, and rural and urban livelihoods. After exploring Africans' struggles against colonial rule in day-to-day practices and mass political movements, the last few weeks cover Africa's transition to independence and the postcolonial era, including the experience of neo-colonialism, ethnic conflict, poverty, and demographic crisis. (formerly HIST 0226) 2 hrs. lect., 1 hr. disc.
Terms Taught
Requirements
HIST 0315
Upcoming
Health/Healing in African Hist
Course Description
Health and Healing in African History
In this course we will complicate our contemporary perspectives on health and healing in Africa by exploring diverse historical examples from the continent's deep past. Our readings, discussions, and papers will cover a range of historical contexts and topics, such as the politics of rituals and public healing ceremonies in pre-colonial contexts, state and popular responses to shifting disease landscapes in the colonial era, long-term cultural and economic changes in healer-patient dynamics, the problematic legacies of environmental health hazards in the post-colonial period, and Africans' engagement with global health interventions in recent decades. (Counts for HSMT credit) 3 hrs. sem.
Terms Taught
Requirements
HIST 0317
South Africa in the World
Course Description
South Africa in the World
Despite the unique trajectory of the rise and fall of apartheid in South Africa, scholars have increasingly moved away from viewing the country’s past as exceptional or isolated from broader world historical developments. Taking up this challenge, our course will explore some of the significant global and transnational dimensions of the making of modern South Africa over the past few centuries. Some of the major topics will include: the expansion of different strands of European colonialism and missionary work; Africans’ engagement with transnational imperial networks; the wider international influences behind the state’s creation and implementation of apartheid; and popular resistance against apartheid and how it intersected with global activist movements. 3 hrs. lect./disc
Terms Taught
Requirements
HIST 0375
Struggles in Southern Africa
Course Description
Struggles for Change in Southern Africa
In this course we will examine the tumultuous period of social struggle in southern Africa in the decades following World War II. Major topics to be covered include the rise of apartheid and the mobilization of anti-apartheid resistance in South Africa and Namibia; the liberation struggle against white settler rule in Zimbabwe; the fight for freedom from Portuguese colonialism in Mozambique; and Mozambique's protracted civil war following independence. A central purpose of this course is to explore how these different arenas of struggle transformed individual lives and social relations in complex and diverse ways, generating enduring impacts and challenges within the region.
Terms Taught
Requirements
HIST 0443
Readings in African History
Course Description
Readings in African History: Women and Gender in Africa
This course takes up the challenge of understanding women's experiences and the role of gender in Africa's past. We will read from a wide variety of disciplinary perspectives and literary forms, including ethnographies, life histories, and fiction, in order to explore different methodological and interpretive approaches to these subjects. Themes will include: changes in the structure of patriarchy and women's status in the pre-colonial period, the gendered impact of colonial rule on African economies and ecologies, historical identities of masculinity and femininity, and gendered experience of postcolonial "development." Prior experience in African history is not required. 3 hrs. seminar
Terms Taught
Requirements
HIST 0500
Upcoming
Special Research Projects
Course Description
Special research projects may only be taken during the Junior or Senior year, preferable after taking HIST 0600. Approval of department chair and project advisor is required.
Terms Taught
HIST 0700
Current
Upcoming
Senior Independent Study I
Course Description
Senior Independent Study I
The optional History Senior Thesis is written over two terms, with the final grade applying to both terms. Approval is required. Students submit thesis proposals in the spring before the year that they choose to write their thesis. Students generally begin their thesis in the fall and complete it during winter or spring. Approval is required to begin the thesis in winter or spring. All students must attend the Thesis Writer's Workshops in fall and winter semesters and work with a faculty advisor to complete a 55-70 page paper. Please see detailed guidelines under history requirements.
Terms Taught
HIST 0701
Current
Upcoming
Senior Independent Study II
Course Description
Senior Independent Study II
With departmental approval, senior history majors may write a two-term thesis under an advisor in the area of their choosing. The final grade is applied to both terms. Students must submit thesis proposals in the spring before the academic year that they choose to write their thesis. They must attend the Thesis Writers' Workshops held in the fall and winter of the academic year in which they begin the thesis. The department encourages students to write theses during the fall (0700) and winter terms (0701), but with the permission of the chair, fall/spring and winter/spring theses are also acceptable. Under exceptional circumstances, the department may approve a thesis initiated in the spring of an academic year and finished in the fall of the following year. Further information about the thesis is available from the department.
Terms Taught
Publications
Selected Publications:
“U.S. Indian Affairs, British Imperial Africa, and Transcolonial Dialogues over Conservation and ‘Native Development’ in the 1930s,” Journal of World History 33, 3 (Sept. 2022), 459-89.
“‘Intertribal’ Development Strategies in the Global Cold War: Native American Models and Counterinsurgency in Southeast Asia,” Comparative Studies in Society and History 62, 2 (April 2020), 421-52.
“Transnational Development Training and Native American ‘Laboratories’ in the Early Cold War,” Journal of Global History 13, 3 (Nov. 2018), 469-90.
“Locust Invasions and Tensions over Environmental and Bodily Health in the Colonial Transkei,” in David M. Gordon and Shepard Krech III, eds., Indigenous Knowledge and the Environment in Africa and North America (Ohio University Press, Ecology and History Series, 2012), 113-28.
Natures of Colonial Change: Environmental Relations in the Making of the Transkei (Ohio University Press, New African Histories Series, 2006).
Recent Presentations:
“Transnational Networks of Nuclear Suffering: Solidarities between Diné (Navajo) and Japanese Activists in the Late 1970s and Early 1980s,” Seventh European Congress on World and Global History, European Network in Universal and Global History, Leiden University, The Hague, The Netherlands, June 29-July 1, 2023.
“Globalizing Diné (Navajo) Stories of Environmental Injustice: Transnational and Settler Colonial Politics of Uranium Mining, Late 1970s to Early 1980s,” conference on “Environmental Justice in US History: Looking Back, Moving Forward,” Roosevelt Institute for American Studies, Middelburg, The Netherlands, October 12-14, 2022.
“Diné (Navajo) Health Concerns on the Global Stage: Transnational Politics of Uranium Mining and Settler Colonialism in the Late 1970s to Early 1980s,” Rohatyn Center for Global Affairs, International and Global Colloquium, Middlebury College, January 21, 2022.
“The Diné (Navajo), Aboriginal Northern Australia, and Namibia’s Anti-Apartheid Freedom Struggle: Transnational and Settler Colonial Politics of Uranium Mining, Late 1970s to Early 1980s,” 3rd World Congress of Environmental History, Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina, Florianopolis, Brazil, July 22-26, 2019.
“Globalizing Indian Health in the ‘Decade of Development,’” Society for the Social History of Medicine conference, University of Liverpool, Liverpool, England, July 11-13, 2018.
“Reflecting on Mugabe’s ‘Shadows’ during Zimbabwe’s Historic Transition,” Rohatyn Center for Global Affairs, Middlebury College, January 18, 2018.
“American ‘Indian Affairs’ and Transnational Development Dialogues in the 1930s and 1940s,” International and Global Studies Colloquium, Rohatyn Center for Global Affairs, Middlebury College, April 7, 2017.