Junior Scholars Excellence Award
2012
Emmanuel M. Mbah was born in Mamfe-Manyu
Division of the South-West Province of the Republic of Cameroon. He is
now Assistant Professor of History at the City University of New York,
College of Staten Island.
Mbah earned his
B.A. and M.A. in History in 1992 and 1994, respectively, from the
University of Yaounde, Cameroon, and was admitted to the History
Doctorate Program of the University of Yaounde in 1995. After passing
his comprehensive exams in 1998, he relocated to the United States for
research.
In 2003, he began
doctoral study in the Transatlantic History Program of the University
of Texas at Arlington, where he obtained his Ph.D. in May of 2006. His
dissertation, entitled "Land/boundary conflict in Africa: The
case of former British colonial Bamenda, present-day North-West
Province of the Republic of Cameroon, ca. 1916-1996," was
nominated by UT-Arlington for the 2007 Council of Graduate
Schools/University Microfilms International Distinguished Dissertation
Award in the Humanities.
Mbah taught at the
University of Texas at Arlington in 2005 and 2006, and has been
Assistant Professor at the College of Staten Island (CSI)/City
University of New York since 2006. At CSI he has taught courses in
African history, colonialism, historical methods, and contemporary
African issues.
In 2007 Dr. Mbah and three colleagues were awarded the
Michael Ribaudo Information Technology Award from CUNY for the Global
Virtual Classroom, which allows students at CSI to link to higher
education institutions in other countries. "These institutions
share students, faculty, lectures, curricula, and technology through a
variety of technologies such as videoconferencing, email, Internet
chat, and the Blackboard classroom management system, which provides
students with access to class materials online." Through this
innovative program, CSI students communicate with their counterparts
at Kahir Das University in Turkey, Shanghai TV University in China,
the American University in Rome, the American College of Thessonaliki
in Greece, and Rhodes and Metropolitan universities in South Africa.
CSI was one of the first ten colleges nationwide to receive support
from the US Department of State to participate in the program.
Dr. Mbah's stature
in the classroom and commitment to his students was further recognized
in 2010, when he was nominated for the CSI Dolphin Award for Teaching
Excellence. In addition to teaching many classes, he has served as a
mentor to five graduate students, four of whom have presented papers
at the Africa Conference at the University of Texas at Austin.
Dr. Mbah is
the author of Land/Boundary Conflict in Africa: The Case of Former
British Colonial Bamenda, Present-Day North-West Province of the
Republic of Cameroon, 1916-1996, which was published in 2008. He
has contributed chapters and articles to a number of publications,
including the African Journal on Conflict Resolution and
several edited volumes. For four years in a row (2007-2010), Dr. Mbah
was awarded the PSC-CUNY Research Award, in addition to summer
research and travel awards. In 2010 and 2011 his accomplishments in
scholarship were formally recognized by the university
(CSI).
Dr. Mbah's current research focuses on conflict, ethnicity,
and the socio-economic and political life of Africans in colonial and
postcolonial Africa.
--