Associate Professor of History

Lacy S. Ferrell is a native of Richmond, Virginia, who decided that she wanted to teach history after a particularly colorful eighth-grade Western Civilizations class. In college, she discovered African history when she took a course on Nationalism and Decolonization in Africa, and hasn’t looked back since. After a brief excursion to Canada, Lacy continued her adventures across the Frozen North and went to the University of Wisconsin, where she wrote her dissertation, “Fighting for the Future: A History of Education in Colonial Ghana, c. 1900-1940.” Her archival and field research was carried out in Ghana, England, and Switzerland. Her favorite Ghanaian dish is kenkey and tilapia.

Dr. Ferrell’s research interests include childhood, education, colonialism, and gender. In addition to finishing her book manuscript on childhood and education in Colonial Ghana, she is currently working on an article examining how education impacted children in a rural community in northern Ghana during the 1930s.

Education:

PhD African History (2013):  University of Wisconsin-Madison

MA African History (2009):  University of Wisconsin-Madison

MA History (2006):  McGill University

BA History, Minor in French (2005):  Dartmouth College

Courses:

HIST 102: World History, 1500-1815

HIST 103: World History, 1815-Present

HIST 330: Africa Before 1800

HIST 331: Colonial Africa

HIST 332: History of Black Diaspora

HIST 333: Visual Cultures of Africa

HIST 334: Gender and Sexuality in African History

HIST 461: Health and Healing in African History

HIST 481: Senior Thesis