Seven Professors Appointed to Named Chairs

David Gordon has been appointed the Roger Howell Jr. Professor. Gordon’s current research uses art and oral tradition alongside archival sources to explore transformations in the central African interior during the nineteenth century, focusing on the Lunda and Luba polities that became part of present-day Angola, Democratic Republic of Congo, and Zambia. In addition to publishing and presenting in academic venues, he is interested in developing museum exhibits that highlight the history and cultures of central Africans. He received a Fulbright Award to do research in Portugal in 2021–2022. “I feel honored to be awarded the Roger Howell Jr. Professorship because the previous holder of the chair was Allen Wells, former professor of Latin American history and one of my most important mentors at Bowdoin College,” Gordon said. His publications focus on the history of southern and central Africa over the last two centuries, including Atlantic and Indian Ocean trading networks, British, Portuguese, and Belgian colonialism, property regimes, environmental cultures, the historical imagination, spiritual agency, and humanitarianism. One of his books, Nachituti’s Gift: Economy, Society and Environment in Central Africa, was a finalist for the African Studies Association Best Book Award for the best book in all disciplines of African studies. His most recent book, Invisible Agents: Spirits in a Central African History, is a history of how spiritual beliefs have influenced human agency. His writing and editing work has been widely published in scholarly journals, digital publications, and print collections, including the Journal for African History, Journal of Southern African Studies, William and Mary Quarterly, History in Africa, Comparative Studies in Society and History, Slavery and Abolition, Past and Present, Oxford Bibliography in African Studies, and the Oxford Research Encyclopedia. Gordon earned his bachelor’s degree at the University of Cape Town, South Africa, before going on to Princeton, where he earned an MA and PhD.

“My work is about communicating central African histories that are little known in the Americas and Europe,” he said. “The complexities and qualities of these African histories contribute to our global cultural heritage, a key component in promoting social and cultural diversity.” 

The Roger Howell Jr. Professorship was established by the governing boards of the College in 1990 in memory of President Emeritus Roger Howell Jr. ’58, H’78.