Sarah Zimmerman
Scholar (History), US
Sarah Zimmerman is an Associate Professor of History at Western Washington University. Her research focuses on the experiences of women and the operation of gender within political economy, society, and military institutions in West Africa and French Colonial Empire. Her first manuscript historicizes militarized conjugality and the deployment of West African soldiers (tirailleurs sénégalais) across French Empire. She has published articles in the International Journal of African Historical Studies and Les Temps Modernes.
Women Making Memory and History: Slaves, Citizens, and Custodians of World Heritage on Gorée Island, 1677-2017
This project analyzes the gendered production of history and the gendered commemoration of slavery on Gorée Island—a UNESCO World Heritage site in Senegal. The first section addresses the intersection of gender, race, and slave/free status on Gorée during the Atlantic period. The second analyzes how Goréen women’s status declined due to abolition and the rise of colonial capitalism between 1848 and 1960. The final section examines how contemporary Goréen women engage in the commemoration of particular pasts on Gorée—via the “House of Slaves” and the Henriette Bathily Women’s Museum.