Fiona Vernal
Assistant Professor
Office: Wood Hall, Room 202
Phone: (860) 486-5538
Fax: (860)486-0641
Email: fiona.vernal@uconn.edu
Areas of Specialty
Africa; 19th century South African history; Christianity in South Africa; slavery
Current Research Interests
Christianity and Missions, Gender, Slavery and the Law, Caribbean/West Indian migration |
|
|
Biography
Fiona Vernal is a native of Litchfield, Jamaica and grew up in Trenton, New Jersey. She earned her BA from Princeton University in 1995 and her MA and PhD from Yale.
After completing her doctoral work in December 2003, she served as director of African Studies at Kalamazoo College, Kalamazoo, Michigan. Since 2005 she has taught at the University of Connecticut's Department of History where her courses focus on
precolonial, colonial Africa, the history of South Africa and the African diaspora. She is currently completing a manuscript which explores the relationship between African Christian converts, European missionaries and the politics of land access, land alienation and the "civilizing" mission of African social and economic improvement in nineteenth century South Africa.
Dr. Vernal consults with the Connecticut Historical Society on oral history projects, most recently on an exhibit documenting and recording the impact of 9/11 on Connecticut victims, families and first responders: September 11, Connecticut
Responds and Reflects. A second exhibit documented the history of West Indian migrants to the greater Hartford's area: Finding a Place, Maintaining Ties: Greater Hartford's West Indians. She is currently engaged in a photo documentation project
on Caribbean migration to greater Hartford.
Selected Publications
"No Such Thing as a Mulatto Slave:" The Legal Odyssey of Steyntje van de Kaap,
1815-1822, (Forthcoming in Slavery and Abolition)
Links of Interest
|
