peter vale

my current research project, the copper eaters: inventing capitalism in central africa, asks: why, despite persistent economic decline and devastating socio-ecological consequences, have congolese (drc) workers, residents, and officials maintained a deep attachment to corporate enterprise and private capital in the country’s mining sector? drawing on community bulletins in swahili and french, interviews with workers and officials, and archives across seven countries, i explore how congolese citizens, subjects, and political leaders navigated the tensions between their historical relationships to natural resources, their reliance on foreign capital, and their desires for political sovereignty.

i have taught seminars and surveys on african history, environmental studies, labor and capitalism, world history, and decolonization at uc berkeley, the university of san francisco, and pitzer college.