Interim Director
Abosede George | [email protected]
Office Hours: Mondays, 2:40 PM — 4:00 PM in Knox Hall, Suite 201
Abosede George is a historian of modern Africa based at Barnard College and Columbia University. Her areas of specialization include West African history, most specifically the History of Lagos, the history of Youth and Childhood, Women, Gender and Sexuality Studies, Urban History, and Migration History. Her book, Making Modern Girls: A History of Girlhood, Labor, and Social Development, was published by Ohio University Press. It received the Aidoo-Snyder book prize in 2015 from the African Studies Association Women’s Caucus. Her writings have appeared in the Journal of Social History, the Journal of West African History, Meridians, Women's Studies Quarterly, Scholar and Feminist Online, Comparative Studies in South Asia, Africa, and the Middle East, the American Historical Review, the Journal of the History of Childhood and Youth, The Washington Post, and the Bloomsbury press series, A Cultural History of Youth among others. Her current research examines how migrant diasporic and refugee communities reshaped notions of citizenship and belonging in 19th century Lagos.
Associate Director
Jinny Prais | [email protected]
As Associate Director of the Institute of African Studies, Jinny Prais manages the daily operations of the Institute, serving as chief budget and human resources officer and overseeing programming, outreach, and development. She leads student and alumni engagement, manages the Institute’s web and social media presence, and fosters partnerships across Columbia and with international institutions. She also directs the SIPA Africa Specialization and the IAS Graduate Certificate in African Studies.
Prais works at the intersection of teaching, advising, student engagement, and program development and serves as Adjunct Assistant Professor of African Studies and International and Public Affairs at Columbia University. She teaches African Civilization and Locating Africa in the Twentieth-Century World in MESAAS, and Citizenship and Social Movements in Africa in SIPA, alongside additional courses on African cities, citizenship, and political thought. Her pedagogical work includes serving as Co-Lead of the African Humanities Project, a collaborative initiative developing shared, modular approaches to African humanities teaching.
With more than fifteen years at Columbia, Prais has played a central role in shaping the Institute’s intellectual life and its broader university presence in African Studies. She has led and managed grant-funded initiatives supported by the Mellon Foundation, the French American Cultural Exchange, the Alliance Program, and multiple internal grants, advancing programming in African humanities, politics, work, and citizenship.
Prais holds a PhD in History and Women’s Studies from the University of Michigan. Her research explores citizenship, urban cultures, and gendered political subjectivity in twentieth-century West Africa, with a focus on intellectual networks and diasporic print cultures. Her publications include “‘Casting the Badge of Inferiority Beneath Black Peoples’ Feet’” (with Mamadou Diouf), Global Intellectual History (2013), and “Representing an African City and Urban Elite,” in The Arts of Citizenship in African Cities (2015). She is currently completing a book manuscript, Between Empire and the World: West African Intellectuals in the Early Twentieth Century.
African Language Coordinator
Mariame Sy | [email protected]
Mariame Sy is the Coordinator of the African Language Program and a Lecturer in Wolof and Pulaar in Middle Eastern, South Asian, and African Studies (MESAAS). She came to Columbia University in Fall 2005 from the Department of Linguistics at the University of California Los Angeles (UCLA), where she is finishing a Ph.D. in Linguistics. Her research interests include the morpho-phonology and syntax of West-Atlantic languages such as Wolof and Pulaar, and first and second language acquisition.
African Studies Librarian
Yuusuf Caruso | [email protected]
Yuusuf S. Caruso is the African Studies Librarian at Columbia (since 1993). He earned his doctorate in History (specialization in East Africa) from Columbia University. He is in charge of everything from and about Africa in the Libraries and offers reference consultations and class instruction. For further information on the collection or to arrange an appointment, please contact Dr. Caruso at the email above.