Charles Ambler

Charles Ambler "is Professor of History, focusing on 19th and 20th century Africa. Recipient of the PhD in African history from Yale University, he has authored and edited two books, including Kenyan Communities in the Age of Imperialism (Yale Press, 1988). His most recent publications include a study of “Popular Films and Colonial Audiences” in The American Historical Review (2001) and a special issue of the International Journal of African Historical Studies on leisure in colonial Africa (2003). He has a contract for a book on Mass Media and Popular Culture in Modern Africa with the Ohio University Press and is completing a second book manuscript on Alcohol and Empire. Ambler’s research has been supported by a Mellon Faculty Fellowship in the Humanities and by grants from the National Endowment for the Humanities. He has been a visiting scholar at the University of Oxford; the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London; the University of Zambia; and Nairobi University. He teaches courses in African and Imperial history at the graduate and undergraduate levels."


 * President (2010), African Studies Association

Research Grants and Fellowships

 * National Endowment for the Humanities, Fellowship for College and University Teachers, 1999
 * National Endowment for the Humanities, Summer Stipend, 1994
 * American Council of Learned Societies Travel Grant, 1989
 * Andrew W. Mellon Faculty Fellowship in the Humanities, HarvardUniversity, 1986-87
 * Isaak Killam Post-Doctoral Fellowship, Dalhousie University, Canada, 1984-85 (declined)
 * Fulbright-Hays, Dissertation Research Abroad Fellowship, 1977 (research in Kenya and England)