Rate My Professor Aran MacKinnon

Aran MacKinnon is Professor of History and Chair of the Department of History and Geography at Georgia College & State University, a position he has held since 2012. In this capacity, he supervises twelve full-time tenured and tenure-eligible faculty, one full-time instructor, and one administrative assistant. He oversees two B.A. degree programs in history and geography, certificate programs in Global Foodways and GISc, and previously a graduate program in history. His responsibilities include managing the department budget, assessment, program development, staffing, and teaching world and African history. Key initiatives under his leadership include the development of digital humanities programs, a strategic Department Diversity and Inclusivity Action Plan, certificate programs in Global Foodways, GISc, and Sustainability, and a collaborative Foodways certificate. MacKinnon earned his Ph.D. in History from the Institute of Commonwealth Studies, University of London in August 1996, with a thesis titled 'Land, Labour, and Cattle: the Political Economy of Zululand, c. 1930-1950,' supervised by Prof. Shula Marks. He received his M.A. in History from the University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban, South Africa in April 1991, with a thesis on 'The Impact of European Land Delimitations and Expropriations on Zululand, 1880-1920,' and his B.A. Honours in History from Queen's University, Kingston, Ontario, Canada in May 1988.

MacKinnon's research specializations include South Africa, World History, African History encompassing pre-colonial, colonial, and modern Africa, transforming societies of Southern Africa, Global Studies, and Capitalism in Africa. He is the author of Nelson Mandela: A Reference Guide to His Life and Works (Rowman Littlefield, 2020), The Making of South Africa: Culture and Politics, Second Edition (Prentice Hall/Pearson, 2012), and The Making of South Africa: Culture and Politics (Prentice Hall/Pearson, 2004). He co-edited Places of Encounter: Time, Place, and Connectivity in World History, Volumes I and II (Westview, 2012) and co-authored An Introduction to Global Studies (Blackwell Publishers, 2010). His peer-reviewed articles have appeared in Journal of Southern African Studies, Radical History Review, Canadian Journal of African Studies, African Studies Quarterly, and others, addressing topics such as chiefly authority and leap-frogging headmen in Zululand, anti-malaria campaigns, and the myth of rural retirement in South Africa. MacKinnon has received grants including the 2018-2019 Payne Fund ($10,000) for student research on the Royal Museum of Africa, the 2019 GCSU Journeys Engaged Learning Mini-grant ($2,000), and the 2019-2020 Affordable Learning Georgia Pilot Grant ($7,500) for developing an open-source historical game. He has also served on the University Senate's Academic Policy Committee.