Joseph Eshun

I am a second-year doctoral student in African History. My area of research interest focuses on public histories and memories surrounding the transatlantic slave trade, particularly at sites that were central to this heritage in West Africa. My dissertation project at MSU will focus on the transformation of several fortifications in Ghana into other uses to highlight how memory sites within the Atlantic arena are commercialized and sanitized, erasing the realities of enslaved people and transforming these sites into spaces of amusement, entertainment, and historical erasure. This is to offer a reevaluation of how history is presented in public spaces and memorials that foster genuine remembrance and social justice. My work will also serve as an intellectual lens people can reject sanitized histories, confront the brutalities of slavery, and recognize and honor the suffering of enslaved people through ethical remembering and reparative narratives. 

In addition to my interest, I continue to be very interested in Black Atlantic history, African American history, digital history, and cultural history.