Paul Tiyambe Zeleza

Paul Tiyambe Zeleza is widely recognized as one the leading authorities on African economic history. His book, A Modern Economic History of Africa, won the 1994 Noma Award for Publishing in Africa, the continent's most prestigious book award. In 1998 he recieved Special Commendation of the Noma Award for Manufacturing African Studies and Crises. He is also the recipient of Choice Outstanding Academic Title.

Over the years, Zeleza has also established himself as a leading intellectual historian of Africa, with influential publications on the development of ideas and higher education institutions. His scholarly output and reputation also extends to gender studies, human rights studies, and diaspora studies. In 2003 he was appointed by the United Nations Research Institute for Social Development (UNRISD) to a nine-member advisory board to oversea the publication of "Gender Equality: Striving for Justice in an Unequal World", a research study issued to mark the 10th Anniversary of, and assess progress since, the United Nation's Fourth World Conference on Women, held in Beijing in September 1995.

He is currently working on a project, "Africa and Its Diasporas: Dispersals and Linkages" that seeks to trace the dispersal of African peoples globally (Asia, Europe, and the Americas), the formation of African diasporas in different world regions, and the linkages established between these diasporas and Africa over the centuries. The project is funded by a $200,000 grant from the Ford Foundation.

Paul Tiyambe Zeleza is currently Dean of the Bellarmine College of Liberal Arts at Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles.

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