Assistant Professor of History
African history
Chepchirchir Tirop is an historian of Africa interested in the social and cultural histories of East Africa. Her previous research focused on the Indian diaspora in Kenya, examining how memory, identity, and nation-building have evolved in post-independence Kenya. Her scholarship has appeared in publications such as Eastern African Literary and Cultural Studies and Africa Is A Country.
Her dissertation project examines the political role of athletics in Kenya from 1945 to 2000, arguing that sports were central to decolonization, nation-building, and Cold War diplomacy. She demonstrates how both colonial and postcolonial governments leveraged track and field to advance political agendas—from managing racial hierarchies during decolonization to forging national unity and navigating Cold War politics after independence. Her work reframes African histories by highlighting sport as a site of colonial continuity and postcolonial agency, repositions Kenya as an autonomous Cold War actor, and recovers the often-overlooked role of African athletes in global sports history.
Chepchirchir Tirop will be teaching HI238: Modern Africa in Fall 2025.