Our 2022 Sherman Emerging Scholar was Dr. Alvita Akiboh of Yale University.
Dr. Akiboh studies the history of the United States' overseas colonies in the Caribbean and Pacific. She earned her PhD in History from Northwestern University and BA in History from Indiana University. Before coming to Yale, Akiboh was a postdoctoral fellow in the Michigan Society of Fellows.
About the Scholar
Dr. Akiboh’s first book, Imperial Material (University of Chicago Press) examines how material objects with U.S. national symbols—flags, currency, and postage stamps—have functioned in the overseas territories. Her latest research looks at the history of natural disasters and disaster relief in the U.S. colonial empire.
Dr. Akiboh has conducted research throughout the continental United States and the overseas territories, including American Samoa, Guam, Hawai'i, the Philippines, Puerto Rico, and the U.S. Virgin Islands. Her work has been supported by funding from a variety of organizations, including the American Historical Association, the Society for Historians of American Foreign Relations, and the Smithsonian.
At Yale, Dr. Akiboh teaches courses on U.S. history, identity, colonialism, and empire. Outside of the classroom, she is committed to mentoring and advancing students and scholars from underrepresented and marginalized backgrounds
Lecture
What Followed the Flag: National Symbols in the U.S. Colonial Empire
What does it mean to become a part of America? In this year’s Sherman Emerging Scholar Lecture, Dr. Alvita Akiboh explores how national symbols can be used to shape identity and create community.
Revisiting the expansion of the American empire in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, Dr. Akiboh argues that the flag of the United States played a key role in forging a colonial identity. The flag, however, came to mean different things to different people, and Dr. Akiboh shows how colonized people creatively repurposed symbolic objects like the flag to express their own sense of political purpose and belonging.
Watch the lecture below!
Watch the 2022 Sherman Lecture
In this year’s Sherman Emerging Scholar Lecture, Dr. Alvita Akiboh explores how national symbols can shape identity and create community.
The Roundtable
Sherman Emerging Scholar Dr. Alvita Akiboh (Yale University) was joined by Dr. Christopher Dietrich (Fordham University), Dr. Naoko Shibusawa (Brown University), and Dr. Nicole Sackley (University of Richmond) to discuss her research. The roundtable was moderated by Dr. Taylor Fain (University of North Carolina Wilmington).
