User:DOstendorff

I am an Assistant Professor of History and Politics at LeTourneau University. My area of emphasis focuses on global history, including courses on the Middle East, Africa, 20th century world history, as well as general historical survey courses. I serve as the program director for the International Studies degree, an bachelor of arts degree focused on equipping students for occupations in business, government and humanitarian sectors. The program seeks to equip students with a solid foundation in history, economics, politics and language from which to move into graduate programs or the professional world.

I am currently finishing up my doctoral work in history at the University of Oxford. The focus of my research is the development and stagnation and/or continuation of elite political families across the pre-colonial, colonial and post-colonial changes of the past 200 years in Africa. My research has begun with a study of the Koinange family in Kenya with plans to branch into southern and western Africa to do a cross-continent examination of elite families.