Home › Academics › College of Liberal Arts › Faculty › Thomas Johnson

Faculty & Staff

Areas of Expertise

Tom Johnson's research interests include the social, environmental and cultural history of Africa and colonial societies. He teaches courses on Africa, world history, the United States, Western Civilization, globalization, and leadership, giving special attention to gender relations.

Degrees

PhD [ABD] Boston University

Professional Publications & Contributions

• "Managing the Rain from Heaven: Dams and Downstream Residents in Southern Zambia," Cultural Survival Quarterly 23 (3) (1999): 44-47.
• "Environmental History," in M.C. Horowitz (ed.), New Dictionary of the History of Ideas (Charles Scribner's Sons, 2005).
• "Samuel White Baker," "Roger David Casement," "Cash Crops," "Gabon," "Henry Woodd Nevinson," all forthcoming in J. Rodriguez (ed.,) (ABC-Clio Press, 2011).

Additional Information

Spring 2013 Office Hours:  W (5-6 p.m. at Copley)

Tom Johnson was a Fulbright Scholar in Zambia. He has taught at UMass Boston from 1997 to 1999 and from Jan. 2004 to the present. His research interests include the social, environmental, and cultural history of Africa; colonialism; slavery; and labor. He developed the history courses in the university’s Environmental Studies program and teaches courses on Africa, world history, the United States, Western civilization, globalization, and leadership, giving special attention to gender relations and field research. Ongoing projects include research on “martial race” soldiers in European empires, exploring ethnicity, and ethnic ranking in colonial labor recruitment.