Jennifer Hart

Jennifer Hart, Professor and Chair of the History Department

Department of History
431 Major Williams Hall, 220 Stanger St.
Blacksburg, VA 24061
540-231-8362 | jenniferhart@vt.edu

Jennifer Hart is Professor and Department Chair in History. A historian of mobility, technology, infrastructure, and urban space in Ghana, West Africa, Hart is the author of Ghana on the Go: African Mobility in the Age of Motor Transportation (Indiana University Press, 2016) and Making an African City: Technopolitics and the Infrastructure of Everyday Life in Colonial Accra (Indiana University Press, forthcoming 2024).

Her work is found in numerous edited collections and journals, including Technology and Culture, International Review of Social History, International Journal of African Historical Studies, African Economic History, Urban Forum, Africa Today, and History in Africa. She is a recipient of the Boahen-Wilks Prize from the Ghana Studies Association and was a 2016 Finalist for the Herskovits Prize from the African Studies Association.

A committed public and digital scholar, she is the director of Accra Wala, a spatially-embedded, community-generated archive of urban life in Accra, Ghana, and a long-time collaborator on the Instagram-embedded project @thistrotrolife. Her writing has appeared in The Washington Post, Africa is a Country, Inside Higher Ed, History@Work, The Metropole, Clio and the Contemporary, Nursing Clio, The Conversation, TAP Narratives, and The Detroit News. She also writes on her own blog, www.ghanaonthego.com.

She currently serves as a senior scholar working on general education in the Office of Curricular and Pedagogical Innovation at the American Association of Colleges and University. She is the North American President for the International Society for the Scholarship on Teaching and Learning in History, a member of the Executive Council for the African Studies Association, and a member of the Africa Initiative Steering Committee for the Society for the History of Technology.

Principal Areas of Research Focus

African History (Ghana)
Urban History
History of Technology
Mobility Studies
Transport History

Education

Ph.D. in History, Indiana University, 2011
M.A. in History, Indiana University, 2007
B.A. in International Studies and Philosophy, Denison University, 2005

Professional Roles

Senior Scholar, Office of Curricular and Pedagogical Innovation, American Association of Colleges and Universities
North American President, International Society for the Scholarship on Teaching and Learning in History
Executive Committee, African Studies Association
Africa Initiative Steering Committee, Society for the History of Technology
Fellow, African Center for the Study of the United States, University of Witwatersrand
Co-Coordinator, African Urban Dynamics Collaborative Research Group, AEGIS: African Studies in Europe (2019-present)
History Communication Steering Committee (2016-present)
Editorial Board Member – Politics in Urban Africa Series, Zed Books (2018-present); Journal of Transport History (2018-present); Wayne State University Press (2018-present); Africa Today (2019-present)

Awards and Honors

Boahen-Wilks Prize for Best Journal Article, Ghana Studies Association, 2020
Finalist, Herskovits Prize (now African Studies Book Prize) for Ghana on the Go, African Studies Association, 2017

Publications

Books

Ghana on the Go: African Mobility in the Age of Motor Transportation (Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press), 2016

Making an African City: Spatial Politics and Local Development in 20th Century Accra (Bloomington, IN: Indiana University), forthcoming 2024

Journal Articles

“’Fruity’ Smells, City Streets, and the Politics of Sanitation in Colonial Accra”, Urban Forum 33(1) (March 2022): 107-127 (published online October 2021)

w/ Victoria Okoye and Joseph Frimpong, “On Collaboration and Communication ‘In the Now’”, Africa Today 67(4) (Summer 2021): 88-94.

“Introduction: Digital History in African Studies”, Special Issue: “Digital History in African Studies”, History in Africa (June 2020), 269-274.

“Of Pirate Drivers and Honking Horns: Mobility, Authority, and Urban Planning in Late-Colonial Accra”, Technology and Culture, 61(2) (April 2020): S49-S72

"Histories of Transportation and Mobility in Africa." In The Oxford Research Encyclopedia of African History. (Oxford: Oxford University Press), February 2020). DOI: 10.1093/acrefore/9780190277734.013.444 (13,300 words)

“’Nifa Nifa’: Technopolitics, Mobile Workers, and the Ambivalence of Decline in Acheampong’s Ghana”, African Economic History 44 (October 2016): 181- 201.

“’One Man, No Chop’: Licit Wealth, Good Citizens, and the Criminalization of Drivers in Postcolonial Ghana”, International Journal of African Historical Studies 46(3) (December 2013), 373-396.

“Motor Transportaton, Trade Unionism, and the Culture of Work in Colonial Ghana” (Special Issue: “Labor in Transport: Histories from the Global South [Africa, Asia, and Latin America] 1700 to 2000”), International Review of Social History 59 (2014), 185-209. Reprinted in Labor in Transport: Histories from the Global South, c. 1750-1950, Stefano Bellucci, Larissa Rosa Correa, Jan-Georg Deutsch, and Chitra Joshi, eds (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press), 2014

Book Chapters

"'Accra we Dey': Precarious Histories, Creative Place-Making, and Reimagined Futures in Urban Ghana", DIY Urbanism in African Cities, ed. Stephen Marr and Patience Mususa, Zed Books, 2023.

“Place-Making, Regulatory Politics, and the Roots of Informality in Colonial Accra”, Anthropology of Urban Africa, ed. Suzanne Scheld and Deborah Pellow, Routledge, 2022.

"Informality, Urban Transport Infrastructure, and the Lessons of History in Accra, Ghana". In Routledge Handbook of Urban Planning in Africa. Carlos Nunes Silva (ed.) (London/New York: Routledge), 2019.

“Trade, Transport, and Services”, Handbook: Global History of Work, Karin Hofmeester and Marcel van der Linden, eds (Munich: Walter de Gruyter Publishers), 2018.

Digital Projects

“Accra Wala” – An interactive online map and public archive of city life in Accra, Ghana (Facebook/Instagram @accrawala; Twitter @accramobile) www.accrawala.com

Affiliated Presentations

“Accra Wala: Community Engagement and Ethical Collaboration in Digital Humanities Scholarship – Next Steps”, Network of Digital Humanities in Africa, February 15, 2022

"Rethinking Research with Digital Tools: Embodying Mobility in Accra", European Conference on African Studies, June 2019

“Accra Wala: Mapping Roads, Mapping History, Mapping Partnerships”, Global Digital Humanities Symposium, Michigan State University, March 2018 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2_G0jtjggSM

“Accra Wala: Representing Mobility and Urban Life in Accra, Ghana”, ACC International Urban Conference, Cape Town, South Africa, February 2018.

“Accra Wala: Mapping Sensation Using Digital Technologies, Meltwater Entrepreneurial School of Technology, Accra, Ghana, October 26, 2016

“Accra Mobile: Motor Transportation, Imagination, and New Media”, Network Detroit, Lawrence Tech University, September 2015.

“Accra Mobile: Motor Transportation, Imagination, and New Media”, HASTAC, East Lansing, MI, May 2015.

Interviewed for “Africa Past and Present” Podcast, November 2016 https://africanstudies.org/annual-meetings/2016-asa-annual-meeting-podcast-episodes/

Interviewed for the Ufahamu Africa Podcast, “Episode 85: A Conversation with Jennifer Hart on transportation, digital humanities, and more https://www.ufahamuafrica.com/2020/02/04/ep-85-a-conversation-jennifer-hart-on-transportation-digital-humanities-and-more/

Affiliated Publications

“Accra Mobile: Motor Transportation, Sensation, and New Media”, Ghana on the Go: African Mobility in the Age of Motor Transportation < http://ghanaonthego.com/2015/07/05/accra-mobile-motor-transportation-sensation-and-new-media/> July 5, 2015.

“Accra Wala: Digital History, Community Partnerships, and Work in Progress”. Ghana on the Go: African Mobility in the Age of Motor Transportation. https://ghanaonthego.com/2017/02/20/accra-wala-digital-history-community-partnerships-and-work-in-progress/. February 20, 2017

“Digital Summer School: Accra Wala, Transit Spanning Continents”, The Metropole: The Official Blog of the Urban History Association. https://themetropole.blog/2019/08/14/digital-summer-school-accra-wala-transit-spanning-continents/ August 14, 2019

“African Automobility: Mammy Trucks in 20th Century Ghana”, People-Works: The Labor of Transport, Mobility in History Blog (T2M: Transport, Traffic, and Mobility), 2018 https://t2m.org/publications/mobility-in-history-blog/

Public-Facing Writing

“What We Know About Trump’s Policy Aims in Africa.” Africa is a Country. http://africasacountry.com/2018/02/trump-in-africa/. February 13, 2018.

Contributor, @Thistrotrolife, Collaborative Instagram project with Nana Osei Kwadwo and Nii Odzenma.

"Teaching History Communication: Early Results." (with Kathryn Brownell, Marla Miller, and Jason Steinhauer). History@Work. National Council on Public History. April 16, 2019. https://ncph.org/history-at-work/teaching-history-communication/.

“The Complicated Political Legacy of Jerry Rawlings,” Africa is a Country. https://africasacountry.com/2019/05/the-complicated-political-legacy-of-jerry-rawlings. May 5, 2019.

Guest editorial, “What’s “New” in Accra?: On Models, Modernism, and the Promise of Grassroots Innovation,” The Architect’s Project: TAP Narratives, October 2019.

“Becoming a Twitterstorian: Social Media, Scholarly Communication, and Professional Practice”, Clio and the Contemporary, October 2019.

“Colonial Governance, Modernization, and the Process of Informalization in Accra”, The Metropole: The Official Blog of the Urban History Association, November 2019.

Instagram Takeover. The Architect’s Project. https://www.instagram.com/p/CD367wXpx9V/?utm_source=ig_embed. August 14-16, 2020.

“Architecting a New Normal?: Past Pandemics and the Medicine of Urban Planning.” With Tony Yeboah and Nate Plageman. https://nursingclio.org/2020/08/18/architecting-a-new-normal-past-pandemics-and-the-medicine-of-urban-planning/, August 18, 2020.

w/ Tony Yeboah and Nate Plageman, “Urban planning needs to look back first: three cities in Ghana show why.” https://theconversation.com/urban-planning-needs-to-look-back-first-three-cities-in-ghana-show-why-144913. September 14, 2020.

“Workers at the economic margins bear covid-19’s costs globally.” Washington Post. https://www.washingtonpost.com/outlook/2020/07/15/workers-economic-margins-bear-covid-19s-costs-globally/. July 15, 2020.

“Flexibility, Generosity, and Community in the Time of COVID, January 25, 2021. https://digitalfieldwork.iu.edu/flexibility-generosity-and-community-in-the-time-of-covid/

w/ Carolyn Loh, “Demolish I-375 and Replace it with Opportunity”, The Detroit News, February 24, 2021. https://www.detroitnews.com/restricted/?return=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.detroitnews.com%2Fstory%2Fopinion%2F2021%2F02%2F23%2Fletter-demolish-375-and-replace-opportunity%2F4560932001%2F

“God Was Everywhere in the Streets: An Interview with Nana Ampadu”, Africa is a Country, October 15, 2021. https://africasacountry.com/2021/10/god-was-everywhere-in-the-street

24 posts on www.ghanaonthego.com

Interviews

Interviewed for and quoted in the article, “Ghana Taxis Display Religious Faith”, by Ken Maguire, Global Post, May 30, 2010. http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/ghana/091216/ghana-taxis-religious-belief.

Interviewed as a panel expert on Boko Haram and the “Bring Back Our Girls” Campaign in Northern Nigeria, Detroit Today, “World 101,” host: Stephen Henderson, WDET, April 22, 2015. http://wdet.org/posts/2015/04/22/80273-world-101-boko-haram/.

Interviewed for “Africa Past and Present” Podcast, November 2016 https://africanstudies.org/annual-meetings/2016-asa-annual-meeting-podcast-episodes/

“Driving in the Postcolony: Jennifer Hart on Automobiles and Infrastructure in Ghana”, Interview by Ilana Gershon. Platypus: The CASTAC Blog. http://blog.castac.org/2017/04/driving-postcolony/ April 18, 2017.

Interviewed by Esperanza Brizuela-Garcia. New Books in African Studies, http://newbooksnetwork.com/jennifer-hart-ghana-on-the-go-african-mobility-in-the-age-of-motor-transportation-indiana-up-2016/. February 23, 2018.

“Digital Summer School: Accra Wala, Transit Spanning Continents,” The Metropole: The Official Blog of the Urban History Association, August 2019.

“Experiencing Colonialism,” OER World History Project, December 2019. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4bowdxeIbS0&feature=youtu.be&fbclid=IwAR1jmBrpNj7GIdB1WE1nO2_HA4fq_SQu7u8w9Vy8HpGmHRQ6Ym6Ud-Dg9X8

Interviewed for the Afrofiles Podcast, Yale University, “Transportation Infrastructure in Ghana”, May 2022 https://anchor.fm/afrofiles/episodes/Transportation-Infrastructure-in-Ghana-e1iafc0?fbclid=IwAR1-oKewSWFZwukdW2Wu0TOB72mBT4hJDYGyCrfatikB-YrRywUW9ffEhDQ

Professional Development

HERS Leadership Institute, Boston, MA (2021-2022)
Academic Leadership Academy, Wayne State University (2019-2020)
HIGHER Leadership Summit (Wisr), University of Michigan (2019)
Higher Ed Admin 101 Online Course, The Center for Higher Education Leadership (2019)

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