Andy Marshall is a doctoral candidate in the Department of Government. Originally from Wisconsin, he first became interested in African studies while studying at the University of the Western Cape during an undergraduate exchange semester with Marquette University’s South Africa Service Learning Program. As a member of the Jesuit Volunteer Corps for two years after graduating from Marquette, he taught English at Majengo Secondary School, now St. Benedict High School, in Moshi, Tanzania, and became interested in the politics of which language(s) we use in education and other areas of social life. He researched the British colonial-era language policies and institutions in East Africa for his master’s thesis at American University before coming to Georgetown University. His dissertation research, supervised by Prof. Lahra Smith, examines the development of Kenyan and Tanzanian language policies–the regulations governing the use of different languages (English, Kiswahili, and non-Kiswahili indigenous languages) in the educational system, legislative debates, broadcast media, political campaigns, and other areas–and their influence on how Kenyans and Tanzanians understand and identify with their nations. Thanks to a Fulbright-Hays Doctoral Dissertation Research Abroad Fellowship, he conducted interviews, archival research, and multi-sited ethnographic observation in Kenya and Tanzania in 2019, and he is currently planning a multilingual survey along the Kenya-Tanzania border to complement my qualitative research. He recently moved to the United Kingdom to start a junior research fellowship at Oxford University’s New College as he works on finishing his dissertation.
