Stephen Pierce is an associate professor of history at Indiana Wesleyan University, currently teaching courses on world history, historical theory and methodology, African history, and the history of the Middle East.  Growing up in rural Pennsylvania, he taught high school history for almost a decade in Haddon Heights, New Jersey, before pursuing a doctoral program at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, with stops in Boston and Zanzibar, Tanzania.  Along with his wife Sherri, he currently spends much of his free time listening to the sage advice of his daughter Abigail (b. 2009) and his son Owen (b. 2012), biking to and from campus, and with fellow True Blue cheering on Chelsea FC.

INTERESTS

Professor Pierce’s research and teaching interests lie at the intersection of East African society and Islam.  His doctoral research investigates Muslim institutions of charity within Swahili society, using documentary evidence from British colonial archives and oral histories from East Africa.  His broader interests include the development of Muslim societies globally, social structures and development in urban contexts, historical methodology, and interfaith practices of charity historically.