Mamadou Diouf is Professor of African History at The Africa Institute, Global Studies University. At Columbia University, he was the Leitner Family Professor of African Studies and Professor of African Studies and History. He formerly served as Director of Columbia’s Institute for African Studies and Chair of the MIddle Eastern, South Asian and African Studies Department.
His prior roles include being, a faculty member of the History Department of Cheikh Anta Diop University in Dakar, Senegal; Head of the Research, Information, and Documentation Department of the Council for the Development of Social Science Research in Africa (CODESRIA) and Charles D. Moody Jr. Collegiate Professor of History and African American Studies at the University of Michigan. Diouf is a former chair of the CODESRIA Scientific Committee, the Board of Directors, and the Executive Committee of the Social Sciences Research Council (US); the Scientific Committee of the French Network of Advanced Studies Institutes/Réseau Français des Instituts d’Etudes Avancées (Maison des Sciences de l’Homme, Paris, France).
He was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 2024 and appointed by the Senegal Prime Minister; chair of the National Committee for the Commemoration o the 80th Anniversary of the Massacre o the Tirailleurs Senegalais at Thiaroye, December 1st, 1944. He is a member of the editorial board of several professional journals including, Humanity, Comparative Studies of South Asia, Africa, and the Middle East. He is the series editor of Histoire, Culture et Politique of Presence Africaine (Paris, France).
He holds a Ph.D. from the University of Paris I-Sorbonne.
His research interests include urban, political, social, and intellectual history in colonial and postcolonial Africa.