Reorienting Africa in the Classroom: Religion & Politics in South Sudan

This is a FREE virtual event.

Please join the World Affairs Council's Global Classroom for a special Saturday morning event featuring Christopher Tounsel, Associate Professor of History and Interim Director, African Studies Program, University of Washington. Professor Tounsel will take us into the world of modern Sudan, discussing his most recent book, Chosen Peoples: Christianity and Political Imagination in South Sudan, and provide a context for understanding the challenges and opportunities facing both countries as they look for political, economic, and social stability. Professor Tounsel will also discuss how his research connects to larger elements of African Studies and African-American Studies in contemporary society. We hope you (educators, students, and community members) can join us for this engaging discussion!

ABOUT THE SPEAKER

Christopher Tounsel is a historian of modern Sudan, with special focus on race and religion as political technologies. His first book, Chosen Peoples: Christianity and Political Imagination in South Sudan, was published by Duke University Press in 2021.

Chosen Peoples explores the ways that Southern Sudanese intellectuals used Judeo-Christian Scriptures to frame their revolutionary work against the Sudanese state. Chosen Peoples was named a Finalist for the 2022 Christianity Today Book Award (History/Biography).

His second book, Bounds of Blackness: African Americans, Sudan, and the Politics of Solidarity, is under contract with Cornell University Press. Expanding on his work on the Tuskegee Institute’s cotton-cultivation work in early twentieth-century Sudan, Bounds of Blackness aims to chart a new intellectual history of Black America’s relationship with Africa from colonialism to the twenty-first century.

Professor Tounsel's articles have appeared in peer-reviewed journals including the Journal of Religious History, Journal of African American History, Journal of Eastern African Studies, Journal of Africana Religions, and Social Sciences and Missions. His words have also appeared in outlets Vox and The Conversation. Support for his research has come from institutions and organizations including the Woodrow Wilson National Fellowship Foundation, Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, Social Science Research Council, Council of Overseas American Research Centers, and Doris G. Quinn Foundation.

MODERATED BY

Ryan Hauck is the World Affairs Council's Global Classroom Director as well as a teacher at Glacier Peak High School in Snohomish, WA. As a teacher of comparative politics and international studies, he is often applauded for bringing the world into his classroom by engaging students around the importance of living in an increasingly interconnected, interdependent world.  Over the last 15 years, Ryan has worked closely with the World Affairs Council and hosted numerous International Visitor Program delegations at his school. He has traveled to South Africa and Swaziland, returning to write curriculum for other teachers to use. Ultimately, Ryan wants his students to think critically about world issues, acquire the skills needed to be globally competent in the 21st century, and become actively engaged citizens locally, nationally, and internationally.

Please reach out to gc@world-affairs.org if you have any questions or need more information. We hope to see you there!