Elisabeth (Liz) McMahon is an associate professor of African history at Tulane University. Her first book, Slavery and Emancipation in Islamic East Africa: From Honor to Respectability (2013), uses Qadi and probate court records on Pemba Island to explore the gendered social dynamics of emancipation. She co-authored, with Corrie Decker, The Idea of Development in Africa: A History (2020). Founder of the African Letters Project, McMahon centers the use of digital technologies to bring a more capacious vision of African and American connections during post-World War II decolonization. The African Letters Project is an expanding database of 5000 letters (currently) with images of the letters publicly available on its website. She has published numerous articles and book chapters, including a co-authored op-ed for the Washington Post in January 2021. McMahon is currently writing a book about girls and women’s aspirations to subvert social expectations in nineteenth century coastal East Africa.
