Courses
International Development; African Civilization to 1800; Introduction to World History

Research Interests
As a social historian of twentieth century Africa, Professor Parsons is most interested in understanding the African colonial experience. His books to date have explored how ordinary Africans navigated the shifting realities of repression and opportunity that emerged during the colonial and post-colonial eras. Current research focuses on the influence of colonial policy on the formation of ethnic identity. It seeks to map the colonial regime's use of ethnicity in administration, education, labor, and land tenure and explore African reactions to the Kenyan government's efforts to codify and exploit local "tribal" identities. By paying close attention to the links between physical space, territory, and ethnicity Professor Parsons is working to produce a historical geography of colonial identity formation.

He is also currently writing a broad global and comparative history of empire that builds on this research by using historical case studies to assess the costs and consequences of empire-building. This book will challenge the scholars and public intellectuals who have asserted that the proper response to the terrorist attacks of 11 September 2001 is a new form of imperial trusteeship whereby the United States would impose order and good government on failed states and totalitarian regimes.

Selected Publications:

Race, Resistance and the Boy Scout Movement in British Colonial Africa. Athens: Ohio University Press, 2004.

The 1964 Army Mutinies and the Making of Modern East Africa. Westport CT: Praeger, 2003.

The African Rank-and-File: Social Implications of Colonial Service in the King's African Rifles, 1902-1964. Portsmouth: Heinemann, 1999.

The British Imperial Century, 1815-1914: A World History Perspective. Lanham MD: Rowman & Littlefield, 1999.

”No More English than the Postal System: the Kenya Boy Scout Movement and the Transfer of Power, 1956-1964.” Africa Today, v. 51, n. 3 (2005).