Dr. Caitlin Barker is a Visiting Assistant Professor in the History Department at Boston College. She received her PhD in History from Michigan State University in 2025. Dr. Barker is trained in modern African and Chinese history, with a particular interest in the international history of the global Cold War. Her writing has appeared in Cold War History, the Journal of West African History, Connections: A Journal for Historians and Area Specialists, and H-Net Reviews.
Dr. Barker’s current book project, Cold War Cameroonian Diplomats on the World Stage, is a diplomatic history from below of Cameroon’s relationship with China and Taiwan during the Cold War. At the center of the story are the diverse array of Cameroonians who forged and mediated Cameroon’s shifting alliances: nationalists, guerrilla fighters, healthcare workers, and politicians – women and men alike. The manuscript draws on oral history and archival research in Cameroon, China, Taiwan, France, and the UK, to challenge conventional understandings of African international relations as perpetually dominated by foreign powers and their rivalries.
Prior to Boston College, Dr. Barker was a Brady-Johnson Predoctoral Fellow at Yale University’s Jackson School of Global Affairs. Her research has been supported by a Fulbright-Hays Doctoral Dissertation Research Abroad fellowship and an International Dissertation Research Fellowship from the Social Science Research Council, among other grants. She currently serves as a book review editor for H-Africa and as Board Secretary for the Chinese in Africa/Africans in China (CA/AC) Research Network. Before beginning her PhD, Dr. Barker taught English and History in Hefei, China for three years and served as a Peace Corps volunteer in the Adamawa region of Cameroon.