Jody Benjamin is Assistant Professor of History at the University of California, Riverside. He received his PhD from Harvard University in the Department of African and African American Studies in 2016. His book manuscript, “The Texture of Change: Cloth, Commerce, and Social Change in West Africa, 1700-1850,” focuses on the Upper Guinea Coast. Before Harvard, he earned an MFA in Non-Fiction Writing from Columbia University and a BA in Black Studies and French from Oberlin College.  His research and teaching focus on African history, African Diaspora studies, material culture, networks and global history. His interests are in advancing innovative, interdisciplinary methodologies for research in West African history, including parts of contemporary Guinea (Conakry), Senegal, Mali and Sierra Leone.