Biography

Doctoral Candidate

Daren E. Ray
Curriculum vitae

Education

PhD, African History, University of Virginia, expected May 2013
      Dissertation: Entangled Ethnicities: Collaborating in Modern Mombasa as “Swahili” or                                “Mijikenda”
      Committee:   Joseph C. Miller (Advisor), John E. Mason, Roquinaldo Ferreira, and  Adria LaViolette

MA, African History, University of Virginia, 2008
      Thesis: The Historical Complexities of “Mijikenda”: Dynamics of Differentiation and                              Affiliation in the Mombasa Hinterland

BA, History, Brigham Young University, 2006
      Magna Cum Laude, with Honors
      Honors Thesis: The Christian Watoro of Fuladoyo: Competing Ideologies on the                                          Swahili Coast

Employment

Roanoke College, History Department, Instructor, Spring 2011

Publications

Conference Proceedings
Forthcoming, “From Constituting Communities to Dividing Districts: The Formalization of a Cultural Border between Mombasa and its Hinterland,” in Borderlands in World History, 1700-1914, ed. Cynthia Radding, Paul Readman, Chad Bryant, under contract with Palgrave Macmillan for expected publication in early 2014.

Review Article
“On the Margins: A Historiography of Modernity in Southern Arabia,” Essays in History [www.essaysinhistory.com], Review Essay, 2009

Major Fellowships, Grants, and Awards
2013       Dissertation Proposal Development Fellows Alumni Initiative Grant 
       Social Science Research Council

2012       Dissertation Year Write-Up Fellowship
         University of Virginia, Corcoran Department of History

2011       John Anson Kittredge Educational Fund Grant

2009-10  Fulbright-Hays Doctoral Dissertation Research Abroad Grant (Kenya)
           US Department of Education

2008       Dissertation Proposal Development Fellowship
         Social Science Research Council

2006       The President’s Fellowship (4 year fellowship)
         University of Virginia, Graduate School of Arts and Sciences

2006       Outstanding History Student Award
         Brigham Young University, History Department

2000       Gordon B. Hinckley Presidential Scholarship (4 year scholarship)
         Brigham Young University

Travel and Language Grants
University of Virginia
2012       Huskey Conference Travel Grant
2011       Summer Research Travel Grant
2011       Huskey Conference Travel Grant
2009       Summer Language Scholarship (Arabic)
2009       Huskey Conference Travel Grant
2008       Summer Research Travel Grant
2007       Summer Language Scholarship (Swahili)
2007       Huskey Conference Travel Grant

Other Sources
2006       Foreign Language and Area Studies Fellowship (Swahili) 
          Summer Cooperative African Languages Institute, Indiana University

2005       Honors Thesis Research Travel Grant
          Brigham Young University

2004       Study Abroad Scholarship (South Africa)
          Golden Key International Honour Society
 

Invited Talks and Conference Presentations

2013       “Shirking Culture: Condemning Traditional Practices as Bid’a in Mombasa,”
Accepted for presentation at Muslim Modernities article-writing workshop, sponsored by the Social Science Research Council at the Institute for Middle Eastern Studies, George Washington University, April 19-20 

2012       “Swahili Swords and Sabaki Words: Local Responses to Imperial Invaders in Mombasa, 1600-1900,” Accepted for presentation at African Studies Association 55th Annual Meeting, November 28-December 2

2012       “Disentangling Ethnicity from its Ancestors,” African Studies Colloquium Series, University of Virginia, October 3

2011       “From Constituting Communities to Dividing Districts: The Formalization of a Cultural Border between Mombasa and its Hinterland,” Borderlands as Physical Reality Conference, King’s College (London), October 21-22

2011       “New Year Celebrations on the Kenyan Coast: Exploring Cultural Expressions as Historical Sources,” African Studies Colloquium Series, University of Virginia, February 23

2009       “Framing and Negotiating Jurisdictional Sovereignty: British Consolidation of Legal Pluralism in the Zanzibar Protectorate, 1839–1908,” James A. Barnes Club Conference, Temple University, March 21

2009       “No More Blue Books! A Strategy for Incremental, not Convulsive, Learning”
Teaching Pedagogy Workshop, with Joseph Miller and Jared Staller,
University of Virginia Teaching Resource Center, February 25

2007       “Contesting Omani Orthodoxy: Identity Politics and ‘Indigenous’ Islam along the Northern Swahili Coast, 1500–1800,” UNC-Duke Islamic Studies Graduate Conference, April 6-7

2006       “The Christian Watoro of Fuladoyo: Competing Ideologies on the Swahili Coast,” Cahuita [Coast Rica] Symposium on Slavery, Culture, and Religion, February 11-14

Other Teaching Experience

Graduate Teaching Assistant, University of Virginia, History Department

2012       Power and Energy in American History
2011       Introduction to African-American and African Studies (Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade)
2011       History of the Modern Middle East
2009       Modern African History
2008       Shaping the Modern World, 1890–1943  
2008       Modern African History
2007       Early African History

Undergraduate Teaching Assistant, Brigham Young University, History Department

2005       United States to 1870 (Summer)
2005 Civil War Era (Winter)

Writing Fellow (Tutor), Brigham Young University, Honors College

2006       Historian’s Craft
2005       European Fascisms (Spring); Modern Italy (Fall)
2004       Writing the International Experience

Teaching Areas
Early African History
Modern African History
East African History
Modern Middle Eastern History
World History
Indian Ocean History
Comparative Slaveries and Slave Trades
Imperialism and Colonialism in Africa
Ethnicity in Africa
Inter-disciplinary Methodologies

Research Experience

2010       Research Assistant, University of Virginia, History Department
         Duties: Prepare materials for new Middle East History course: “Palestine 1948”       

2005       Research Assistant, Brigham Young University, Joseph Smith Papers Project
         Duties: Prepare references, charts, and transcripts for documentary editors.

Professional Service

2012-13 Organizer/Grant Writer for Muslim Modernities Article Workshop
         Dissertation Proposal Development Fellows Alumni Initiative
         Social Science Research Council

2010-12 Manuscript Reviewer, Essays in History            

2011       Field Recording Equipment Training Workshop          
         Research Institute of Swahili Studies in East Africa, June 8

2006       Assistant Editor, The Thetean (Student History Journal)
         Brigham Young University, History Department

University Service

2012       Panel Member, Teaching Assistant Workshop
         University of Virginia, Corcoran Department of History, August 24

2012       Graduate Student Coordinator for Faculty Search Committees
          University of Virginia, Corcoran Department of History, January-March  

Language Skills

Kiswahili – Excellent (Reading, Speaking), Good (Writing)
Arabic – Conversational, read and write with a dictionary

Professional Associations

American Historical Association
African Studies Association
British Institute in East Africa
Research Institute of Swahili Studies in East Africa
Golden Key International Honour Society