Social and cultural history of Africa, colonialism and postcolonialism, Nationalism in Africa, Development, urban history

Lynn Schler received a B.A. in history at the University of Michigan in 1989. She completed her Master’s degree in African Studies at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem in 1995. She received a Ph.D. in African History at Stanford University in 2002. Since 2008, she has been a senior lecturer in African History in the Department of Politics and Government at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev in Israel.

Lynn’s research has been focused on the construction of identities, communities and ideologies in the volatile meeting grounds between European empires and African cultures. Her work has examined the cultural, ideological and political implications of colonial and post-colonial encounters in Africa, the African Diaspora, and Europe. Her first book, The Strangers of New Bell: Immigration, Public Space and Community in Colonial Douala, Cameroon, 1914-1960 (UNISA, South Africa, 2008), examined the growth of an immigrant community in Douala under German and French colonial rule. Her second monograph, Becoming Nigerians: African Seamen, Decolonization and the Nationalization of Shipping in Nigeria, 1945-1990 (Ohio University Press, forthcoming) focuses on Nigerian seamen in the transition from colonialism to independence. The study provides a working-class perspective on the process of decolonization, and documents the ways in which everyday Africans interpreted and experienced these broader political changes. Research for this book was conducted in Nigeria and Liverpool.

Lynn has been the Director of the Tamar Golan Africa Centre at Ben Gurion University since 2011. In this capacity, she organizes and oversees a wide range of academic, research and cultural activities. She was also one of the founders and the first academic director of the Inter-University Program in African Studies, based at Ben-Gurion University, Tel Aviv University and the Open University of Israel.

Authored Books

Lynn Schler, The Strangers of New Bell: Immigration, Public Space and Community in Colonial Douala, Cameroon, 1914-1960 (UNISA, South Africa, 2009).

Lynn Schler, Nation on Board: Becoming Nigerian at Sea. (Ohio University Press, Athens, OH, 2016)

Editorship of collective volumes

Lynn Schler, Louise Bethlehem, and Galia Sabar, Rethinking Labour in Africa, (Routledge, London, 2010).

Ruth Ginio and Lynn Schler, “Decolonization reconsidered: Rebirths, Continuities and Erasures,” Special issue of Hagar: Studies in Culture, Polity and Identities, vol. 9(2), 2010.

Lynn Schler, God’s Bits of Wood: Three Masterpieces from Senegal, (in Hebrew) (AhuzatBayit, Tel Aviv, 2012).

Lynn Schler, Ruth Ginio , and Noa Levy, eds. The Field in Africa: Experiences of Research and the Construction of Knowledge (Pardes Books, 2016).

Lynn Schler, Noa Levy, Ayala Kuriel, Letters from Africas: An Anthology of Poetry (Pardes Books, 2018).

Refereed chapters in collective volumes

Lynn Schler,“The Unwritten History of Ethnic Co-existence in Colonial Africa: An Example from Colonial Douala,” in Violence and Non-Violence in Africa,eds. P. Ahluwalia, L. Bethlehem and R. Ginio. (Routledge, 2007)

Lynn Schler,“Epilogue: Postcolonial Voices in the Literature of Senegal,” in God’s Bits of Wood: Three Masterpieces from Senegal, (in Hebrew) (AhuzatBayit, Tel Aviv, 2012).

Lynn Schler, “Introduction,” inThe Field in Africa: Experiences of Research and the Construction of Knowledge (Pardes Books, 2016).

Lynn Schler, “Whose Story Is This? Conflicting Agendas in the Collection of Oral Histories in Nigeria,” inThe Field in Africa: Experiences of Research and the Construction of Knowledge (Pardes Books, 2016).

Lynn Schler, “Mashav in the 1960s: A View from Below,” Exhibit Catalogue, “Architecture, Planning and Development from Israel to Africa,” Architect’s House, Tel Aviv-Jaffa, April 2016.

Lynn Schler, “Robben Island,” in Borrowed Syndrome, Einat Leader and David Goss, (Sternthal Books, 2016).

Lynn Schler, “Business After Hours: The Entrepreneurial Ventures of Nigerian Working Class Seamen,” in Entrepreneurship in Africa: An Historical Approach, ed. Moses E. Ochonu (Indiana University Press, forthcoming, 2018).

Lynn Schler, “The Limits of Solidarity: A History of Israeli Cooperative Assistance in Zambia,” in SocialismesAfricains/Socialismes en Afrique, ed. (Paris, Editions de la Sorbonne, 2018).

Lynn Schler, “African Poetry as a Space of Possibility,” in Letters from Africas: An Anthology of Poetry, eds. N. Levy, A. Kuriel, and L. Schler (Haifa: Pardes Books, 2018).

Refereed articles and refereed letters in scientific journals

Lynn Schler,“Looking Through a Glass of Beer: Alcohol in the Cultural Spaces of Colonial Douala, 1910-1945,” International Journal of African Historical Studies, vol. 35, no. 2 (2002) 315-334.

Lynn Schler,“Ambiguous Spaces: The Struggle over African Identities and Urban Communities in Colonial Douala, 1914-1945,” Journal of African History, vol. 44, no. 2 (2003) 51-72.

Lynn Schler,“Bridewealth, Guns and Other Status Symbols: Immigration and Consumption in Colonial Douala,” The Journal of African Cultural Studies , vol. 16 (2003) 213-234.

Lynn Schler,“Writing African Women’s History Using Male Sources: Possibilities and Limitations,” History in Africa: A Journal of Method, vol. 31 (2004) 319-333.

Lynn Schler,“History, the Nation-State and Alternative Narratives: An Example from Colonial Douala,” African Studies Review, vol. 48, no.1 (2005) 89-108.

Lynn Schler,“Historicizing the Undisclosed: Questions of Authority and Authenticity in Writing the History of Birth in Colonial Cameroon,” Lagos Notes and Records, vol. 13 (2008).

Lynn Schler,“Secrets and Silences in the Writing of African Women’s History,” (in Hebrew), Zmanim: A Historical Quarterly, vol. 102 (2008) 68-79.

Lynn Schler,“American Imperialism in the Era of Post-Orientalism,” (in Hebrew), Jama’a, vol. 17 (2009) 87-92.

Lynn Schler, Louise Bethlehem, and Galia Sabar, “Introduction: Rethinking Labor in Africa,” African Identities, vol. 7, no. 2 (2009) 287-298.

Lynn Schler,“Transnationalism and Nationalism in the Nigerian Seamen’s Union,” African Identities, vol. 7, no. 2 (2009) 387-398.

Lynn Schler,“Decolonization Reconsidered: Rebirths, Continuities and Erasures ,” Ruth Ginio and Lynn Schler, Hagar, vol. 9 no. 1, (2010) 3-14.

Lynn Schler,“The Negotiations of Nigerian Seamen in the Transition from Colonialism to Independence: Smuggling to Make Ends Meet,” African Studies Review, vol. 54, no. 1 (2011), 167-185.

Lynn Schler,“Becoming Nigerian: African Seamen, Decolonisation, and the Nationalisation of Consciousness,” Studies in Ethnicity and Nationalism, vol. 11, no. 1 (2011), 42-62.

Lynn Schler,"‘The facts stated do not seem to be true’: The Contested Process of Repatriation in British Colonial Nigeria." The Journal of Imperial and Commonwealth History, vol. 42 (2014): 134-152.

Lynn Schler,“Seamen and the Nigerianisation of Shipping in the Postcolonial Era,” International Labor and Working-Class History, vol. 86 (2014): 124-141.

Dubinsky, Itamar, and Lynn Schler, "The Mandela Soccer Academy: Historical and Contemporary Intersections between Ghana, Lebanon, and the West." The International Journal of the History of Sport 33.15 (2016): 1730-1747.

Lynn Schler, "Dilemmas of Postcolonial Diplomacy: Zambia, Kenneth Kaunda and the Middle East Crisis, 1964-1973," Journal of African History, vol. 59:1 (2018), 97-119.

Approaches to Research: Methodology, Practice & Theory
Research Methods: Methods, Theory and Practice
Knowledge and Power in the Modern and Postmodern World
Society, Politics and Culture in Africa of the 20th Century
Empire: Theory and Praxis
Immigrants and Israeli Society
Race and Culture in the Black Atlantic
Land and Politics in Africa Over Time
South Africa from Apartheid to Democracy
Sources and Methods in the Study of Africa
Africa and Activism
Identity and Politics in the Black Diaspora