​Timothy Parsons

​Timothy Parsons

​Professor of History and of African and African-American Studies
PhD, Johns Hopkins University
MA, George Washington University
BA, Wesleyan University
research interests:
  • The Social History of Colonial Africa
  • Africa in the Early National Era
  • Empire
  • Education in Colonial Africa
  • Urban History
  • Ethnicity and the Creation of Identity
  • Islam in Africa

contact info:

  • Email: tparsons@wustl.edu
  • Phone: 314-935-4974
  • Fax: 314-935-9390
  • Office: Busch 105 and McMillan 232 (for office hours)

office hours:

  • ON SABBATICAL SPRING 2025​
    Monday
    3:00 PM - 5:00 PM,
    By appointment (e-mail at address above)
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mailing address:

  • MSC 1109-137-226
    Washington University
    One Brookings Drive
    St. Louis, MO 63130-4899

As a social historian of twentieth century Africa, Professor Parsons' research to date has been focused on understanding how ordinary people experienced imperial rule.

Parsons' books to date have explored how Africans from diverse walks of life navigated the shifting realities of repression and opportunity that emerged during the imperial and early national eras. Building on this earlier work, he is currently pursuing several research projects:

  • The Historical Geography of Kenyan Identity Formation
  • The Imperial Inheritance: The Legacies and Consequences of Empire for East Africa, the West, and the Wider World
  • A World History of the Twentieth Century

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