Faculty & Staff Member Profile

Dr. Jennifer Lofkrantz is an Associate Professor of History in the Department of Humanities and Social Sciences. She is primarily a historian of precolonial West Africa and of contemporary northern Nigeria and the Sahel region. Her areas of expertise include historical and contemporary jihad movements, historical and contemporary West African ransoming practices, Salafism, Salafi Jihadism, Islamic law (Mālikī), comparative historical and contemporary slavery, and women and gender in Africa. She has experience conducting extensive research in Nigeria, Niger, and Mali. Her research has appeared in the journals Slavery & Abolition, Journal of African History, International Journal of African Historical Studies, and African Economic History among others. She is the author of Ransoming Prisoners in Precolonial Muslim Western Africa (University of Rochester Press, forthcoming June 2023) and the co-editor of Ransoming, Captivity and Piracy in Africa and the Mediterranean (Africa World Press, 2016). She is a former editor of African Economic History. She has extensive experience teaching a wide variety of World, Islamic World and African History courses. She hold a Ph.D in African History from York University, Canada, a M.A in African History from Queen's University, Canada and a B.A (Hons) from Simon Fraser University, Canada.