The University of Sheffield
Department of History

Dr. Miles Larmer, BA (Westminster), MA (London), Ph.D. (Sheffield)

Senior Lecturer in International History [Post 1945 Global History, nineteenth and twentieth century African history]

[On research leave, 2011-12]

Photo of Dr. Miles Larmer

Email: m.larmer@sheffield.ac.uk
Room: Jessop West: 3.16 | Telephone: 0114 22 22571
Office Hours, Spring 2011-12: On research leave.

 

Biography

Dr Larmer joined the History Department at Sheffield in September 2008. He was an undergraduate at the University of Westminster and an MA in Africa Studies at the Institute of Commonwealth Studies and the School of Oriental and African Studies in London. He then worked for a number of aid agencies including Save the Children, travelling widely in Africa, Latin America and the Caribbean. He returned to higher education in 2000, completing his PhD at the University of Sheffield in 2004. He was then a Post-Doctoral Research Fellow at the University of Pretoria, before working at Keele and Sheffield Hallam universities.

 

Membership of Professional Bodies

 

Research


Current Research
Miles Larmer recently completed a study of the post-colonial political history of Zambia, entitled 'Rethinking African Politics: A History of Opposition in Zambia', published by Ashgate in September 2011. This focuses on opposition movements to Kenneth Kaunda's United National Independence Party and, in doing so, seeks to present an alternative approach to the study of post-colonial political change to the discredited nationalist framework that has hitherto dominated the historiography of Zambia and of sub-Saharan Africa in general.

Dr Larmer is the co-editor (with Dr Alastair Fraser of the University of Cambridge) of 'Zambia, Mining, and Neoliberalism: Boom and Bust on the Globalized Copperbelt', to be published by Palgrave Macmillan in January 2011. This inter-disciplinary collection discusses historical precedents for Zambia’s contemporary experience of dealing with dramatic fluctuations in the global copper price; considers the economic policy challenges facing the state and analyses the popular political and cultural impacts of these dramatic events. By developing a detailed and multi-layered account of a single central African country, the book aims to inform vital debates about global commodity markets, managing extractive resources, Chinese economic expansion, corporate regulation and the emergence of social and populist movements in the developing world.

He recently edited the memoirs of Valentine Musakanya, an important intellectual and political figure in independent Zambia. This was published in Zambia in 2010 and is available at: http://www.africanbookscollective.com/books/the-musaakanya-papers. A review of the book in Zambia's leading newspaper can be viewed at http://www.postzambia.com/post-read_article.php?articleId=9362.

Dr Larmer's current research project is a study of the Katangese gendarmes as a way of understanding the social and political history of Central-Southern Africa's 'forty-years war' from 1961 to 1999. This will encompass research on a series of intertwined local, national and transnational conflicts in Zambia, Angola and the Democratic Republic of the Congo. He received support from the British Academy Small Research Grants programme for the initial phase of this research. He was awarded a Research Fellowship by the Arts & Humanities Research Council and will consequently be on research leave in 2011-12.


Research Interests
Miles Larmer’s research interests encompass the post-colonial history of Southern-Central Africa, the role of labour in politics and the interaction between local, national and transnational forces and identities in shaping political change in sub-Saharan Africa. His PhD thesis explored the role of Zambia’s mineworkers in influencing political change in post-colonial Zambia. This was based on extensive archival research in Zambia, as well as extensive interviews with former mineworkers.


Research Supervision
Dr Larmer teaches on the postgraduate modules 'Approaches to International History' (HST6605), the MA option 'African Nationalism' (HST695) and the Research Skills module (HST6801). At undergraduate level, he teaches 'Imperialism and Independence: Africa in the Twentieth Century (HST3118/3119) and 'Southern Africa and the Wider World, 1750-1918' (HST286). He also teaches on 'Historians and History' (HST202) and 'Paths: from Antiquity to Modernity' (HST112).

He welcomes enquiries from potential research students interested in late colonial or post-colonial African political history or the history of globalisation and social movements.

 

Administrative Roles and Responsibilities

Course convenor of 'Approaches to International History' (HST6605) and 'Historians and History' (HST202).

 

Selected Publications