Dr Nathan Bossoh

My teaching generally centres around histories of science-religion-empire interactions; colonial museums, museum collections and their legacies, and repatriation. At present, I teach and convene on a range of History undergraduate and MA modules:

Undergraduate modules:

• Us and Them: Inventing Identities in History
• World Histories Introduced
• Empire and its Discontents
• Darwin and the Making of Evolutionary Thought

MA modules:

• Global Challenges in Historical Context: Identity and Rights 

Dr Nathan Bossoh is a historian, musician, and curator whose work bridges academic disciplines and connects scholarship with wider publics. His research broadly focuses on the history of modern science and its intersections with empire, religion, and material knowledge in Anglophone (West) African contexts.  His present research explores marginalised botanical and medical knowledge and practices across West Africa and its diasporas in British imperial and post-imperial contexts. Between September 2022 and 2023 Bossoh was the first African Collections Research Curator for the Science Museum, London. He is also Co-Curator of The Kola Nut Cannot Be Contained, a Wellcome Collection exhibition showcasing the global histories, vibrant contemporary traditions, and future innovations surrounding the West African Kola tree fruit. Bossoh is currently a Lecturer in Modern History at the University of Southampton and is regularly consulted on topics surrounding decolonisation in STEM through African history; churches and Black British (under)representation in the sciences; and museum collections and curation.