Misha Mintz-Roth. Talk on A component of commerce and transportation in colonial Nairobi : The rickshaw

Misha Mintz-Roth 

The Johns Hopkins University, Department of History, ABD

Saturday Art talk at Tvak Studios. Ahmedabad.

A third-year doctoral student in African history, with a focus on urban cross-cultural exchange in twentieth-century Kenya. I look across Gujarati-, Swahili-, and English-language sources–letters, newspapers, travel diaries, and governmental archives--to write about how Indian, African, and European populations shared city spaces and simultaneously contested each other’s claims to urban resources and belonging. Prior to my academic research, I worked in finance in the United States and Kenya and as a legislative aide with the United States Senate Banking Committee in Washington D.C. I have published as a journalist with The Economist online and The American Interest, and have worked as a research attaché with the British Institute in Eastern Africa (BIEA), a Nairobi-based NGO.  

Misha Demonstrating the importance in  Kenya's urban economic and political development prior to World War II, and the way that something as simple as a rickshaw changed East Africa’s twentieth century in such complex ways.

Misha shared with us a presentation Titled " rickshaw trouble"

: Merchants, Migrants and Nairobi's transportation economy. 

Misha and the residency Artist Jeet Pandya ! 

This was an interesting talk and a true reminder that the talks are held at the studios so that knowledge can be shared and like minded people can meet in an informal setting. 

We wish Misha all the best as he travels to Nairobi to pursue his research and hope he will be back in india soon so we can catch up again. He is truly a Kindled Mind !!