History
Zimbabwe born Ruramisai Charumbira joined Denison's Department of History in the Fall of
2006. She teaches courses on the history of Africa (pre and
post-1880) with an emphasis on women and gender. Some of her courses include: History of
Africa to 1880, History of Africa since 1880, the History of Southern Africa, Gender,
Imperialism and Colonialism, International Development in Historical Perspective, and
Women in Modern Africa. She received her Ph.D. from Yale University in 2006.
Ruramisai Charumbira's research interests include: ethno-archaeology, historical memory,
indigenous knowledge systems, imperialism, and comparative women's history. Her
dissertation, "Forgetting Lives, Remembering Symbols: Women in the History of Zimbabwe,"
examined the dialectical relationship between historical memory and forgetting in the
history of pre-1850 Zimbabwe and the political and cultural icon, Nehanda, in the history
of Zimbabwe in recent times. Her awards include: International Fellow 2001-02, American
Association of University Women (AAUW); Whiting Dissertation Fellowship 2005-06.
Ruramisai's recent publication is: "Administering Medicine without a License: Missionary
Women in Rhodesia's Nursing History, 1890-1901," The Historian, 68, 2, (Summer 2006),
241-266.
