Jon Soske

Professor

Jon Soske is Professor of Modern African History at the University of Toronto, Canada. He received a MA in Comparative Literature from the University of California, Berkeley, and a PhD in History from the University of Toronto. From 2009-11, he was a postdoctoral fellow at the Centre for Indian Studies in Africa and at the Wits Institute for Social and Economic Research (WISER) at the University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa. His first book project, Boundaries of Diaspora: African Nationalism and the Indian Diaspora in 20th century South Africa, rewrites the history of the antiapartheid struggle by examining the interlacing histories of South Africa and India, especially in regard to the circulation and reconfiguration of ideas concerning race, nation, caste, and diaspora. Professor Soske presented a seminar paper titled “The impossible concept: A genealogy of the non-racial”, in the South African Contemporary History and Humanities Seminar series at the CHR.