Laura Ann Twagira

Laura Ann Twagira is an Assistant Professor of History, Assistant Professor of Feminist, Gender, and Sexuality Studies, and Co-Coordinator of African Studies at Wesleyan University. Her areas of expertise include: gender and sexuality in Africa; global gender history; 20th century West Africa; the environment, technology, and development, including women and the environment, gendered cultures of technology, the history of technology in Africa, and development in Africa.

She is currently working on a book about women living at a large agro-industrial development scheme in Mali called the Office du Niger.  The project examines how women used the resources of the scheme to engineer a highly adaptive local food production system that depended on female labor power and made use of modest technologies (such as metal pots and calabashes) that are generally overlooked in favor of the more impressive irrigation infrastructure of the scheme.  The project highlights the ways in which common narratives about development miss the critical environmental and technological work of women. 

This PECE essay helps to answer the STS Across Borders analytic question: “What people, projects, and products exemplify how this STS formation has developed over time?”

This essay highlights prominant and upcoming individuals working on critical science and technology issues in Africa and is part of a broader exhibit on "STS in Africa."