DR SARA BYALA

Sara Byala is a South African by birth, who grew up in the United States. She holds a BA from Tufts University and both a Masters and PhD in African History from Harvard University. She is currently a Senior Writing Fellow at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia, USA, where she teaches African history and writing courses.

Byala’s book A Place that Matters Yet: John Gubbins’s MuseumAfrica in the Postcolonial World is due to be released by the University of Chicago Press in June 2013.  The book uses the largely unknown history of MuseumAfrica (from its founder’s arrival in South Africa in 1902 to the near present) as a case study to explore larger questions of culture in post-apartheid and postcolonial contexts. It is based on her doctoral dissertation titled Thinking in Three-Dimensions: John Gubbins, MuseumAfrica, and the Making of Modern Johannesburg, 1902-2004. sarabyala@gmail.com