Center for the Humanities Graduate Fellow Spring 2018   
Waseem-Ahmed Bin-Kasim
Ph.D. Candidate in History

Project description

A comparative history, my project titled “Sanitary Segregation: Cleansing Accra and Nairobi, 1908-1963” is both transnational and transregional, situated at the intersection of urban planning, public health and ecological factors. By exploring buffer zones, slums, demolition, housing, and waste, the project illustrates how sanitation drove urban design and development in two different landscapes, which expanded both geographically and demographically in the twentieth century. Accra and Nairobi, British non-settler and settler capitals of the Gold Coast Colony (Ghana) and Kenya respectively, manifested the various ideologies and structures of their different states. Because of this and other distinctions, Africanists often depict Accra and Nairobi as dissimilar. This project challenges scholars to rethink the difference in the context of African colonial past. Sanitation, bound up with planning, design, and development, was a powerful grist for officials, urban residents, expatriates and nongovernmental organizations in Accra and Nairobi to (re)configure urban geographies along class and racial lines. “Sanitary Segregation” supports and encourages transnational scholarship by foregrounding processes and ideas mobilized to preserve and change longstanding social, economic, and political structures. 

The fellowship allowed me to start a fresh chapter on “waste” as well as complete one on “housing,” which I began writing before commencing the fellowship in spring 2018. The center’s working space, large screen computer, office supplies and scores of other facilities encouraged the writing. 

My favorite thing about my fellowship was the lunch workshops. They afforded me the opportunity to obtain very constructive feedback on my chapter titled “demolition” and listen to how graduate and faculty fellows articulate their projects. The workshop discussions, always garnished with delicious meals, were thought-provoking and inspiring. 

The most unexpected thing about my fellowship was the sense of community the center fosters among faculty, postdoctoral, and graduate fellows. The environment, the staff, as well as scholars encourage informal conversations along the corridors and in offices. 

Something new I learned this semester is how to think about the breadth of my work. I have always thought of my work more narrowly within the context of African history. Discussing my project with an interdisciplinary community enriched my thinking. It feels great to learn that many disciplines, focusing on different geographical areas outside Africa are also interested in the questions with which I grapple. 

I would recommend this fellowship for graduate students who have started writing their dissertation and are interested in obtaining feedback from an interdisciplinary community of academics. Graduate students must also be ready to read other projects and participate actively during lunch workshops.