My Blog
Doing and Teaching Development History
On a flight from Beijing to Chicago last week, the man sitting by my right asked me what kind of history that I do? I told him I do development history. His next question was, “what is that? I have never heard of it!”His response is one I have heard fairly often....
Elements of Historical Thinking
History is not simply the recalling of past events. It is more complex. It is an attempt to look into the past and to try to understand it with all its complexities. The procedures that historians use to make sense of the past is historical thinking. In the last...
Questions on Development in Africa
Each year, billions of US dollars are sent to Africa as aid from the US government, foundations, charities, etc. These dollars are intended to develop the continent. In my classes focused on development, I often ask the students on the first day of class to comment on...
Teaching and Learning History
A substantial number of students come to my history classes telling me they are not good with history. There is always a sense of nervousness. If they could avoid taking the classes, they would gladly do but they have to because these are prerequisites for graduation....
Oral History Metadata Synthesizer
The Oral History Metadata Synthesizer developed by the University of Kentucky has great potentials in effectively managing oral interviews. In order to use the system, I uploaded an oral interview from YouTube, using the link. This process was very straightforward to...
Digital Public History of Place
In doing the digital history of a place, it is important not to take the place too literally in terms of the geolocation. As Mark Tebeau has suggested, using such an approach will “make a story less accessible intellectually than layering such stories within broader...
