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Shobana Shankar Shobana Shankar is Professor of History and Africana Studies at Stony Brook University, a flagship of the State University of New York. She is also chair-elect of the History Department and will begin a three-year term in summer 2026. Shankar’s research and teaching focus on social and cultural history in colonial and postcolonial West Africa and Africa-Asia entanglements. Her book, An Uneasy Embrace: Africa, India and the Spectre of Race (Oxford/Hurst 2021), is the first history of how race and racialization have brought Africans and Indians together yet also driven them apart. The book, which was a finalist for ASWAD’s P. Sterling Stuckey Prize, is based on her research in 7 countries, including Ghana, India, Nigeria, and Senegal. It was also a finalist for the International Studies Association Global Development Section Book Award (2022) and longlisted for the International Convention of Asia Scholars Social Sciences Book Prize (2023). Her other books include Who Shall Enter Paradise? Christian Origins in Muslim Northern Nigeria, c.1890-1975 (Ohio University Press) and co-edited volumes, Religions on the Move: New Dynamics of Religious Expansion in a Globalizing World (Brill, 2013) and Transforming Religious Landscapes in Africa: The Sudan Interior Mission, Past and Present (Africa World Press, 2018). Her work has been supported by Fulbright, the Wenner Gren Foundation, Council of American Overseas Research Centers, American Historical Association, and the Wilson International Center for Scholars. In addition to numerous scholarly publications, she has written for wider audiences for The Conversation, The Washington Post, Africa is a Country, and other outlets. She has served as co-convener of Africa-Asia workshops and seminars through NYU’s Global Asia initiative and the Center for the Study of Africa and the African Diaspora and co-chaired the program of the African Studies Association (US) annual meeting. Working with Asian organizations such as the African Studies Association of India and SpaceAfroAsia in South Korea, she is involved in collaborations to build African and African-Asian studies outside the West. She is founder and co-editor of the new book series, African Religions, Social Realities (Ohio University Press) and sits on the boards of journals and book series, including Afrasia: Contours, Crossings, Connections (Univ. of Pittsburgh Press).
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