Wendy Wilson-Fall

I’m a Professor and Chair of Africana Studies at Lafayette College. In 2015 I published the book Memories of Madagascar and Slavery in the Black Atlantic’ (Ohio University Press) which explored the experience of 1,400 enslaves Malagasy who arrived in Virginia and Maryland between 2012 – 2021 as well as cases of maritime workers who came to the U.S, between 1820-1840. To date, this is the only scholarly study of Malagasy slaves, sailors and their descendants in the U.S. My doctorate is in African Studies from the African Studies graduate program at Howard University. I have published several book chapters on the subject of African immigrant/African American relations. Recent publications include “Carrying Memory and Making Meaning: Black Identity and the Slave Past,” in Comparative Literary History of Modern Slavery, Vol. II;eds. Baggesgaard, Dobie and Simonsen, ICLA, John Benjamins Publishing,(2025) and the article “Winners and Losers; Pastoralist Futures in Senegal” in Africa Today (summer 2024). I have an upcoming chapter in ‘African Migrations’ (Yvonne Captain,ed.) to be published by 2026 (Bloomsbury).

I have extensive field experience in West Africa, having visited and worked in seven countries in that region, and lived in Senegal for 13 years. I have also visited and lectured in Madagascar, Algeria, Kenya, and Tanzania. In the past I worked for USAID, served as the Director of the West African Research Center in Dakar, and as President of the West African Research Association, a sub-section of the African Studies Association. My research interests are in government policy for environmental management, and socio-political interface among various Black diaspora communities in the U.S. These fields of inquiry include sustainable range use and security for pastoralists in West Africa, and friction and identity between Black U.S. nationals and African nationals.