I am a historian of modern Africa, with a regional focus on Kenya. I’m particularly interested in gender and women's history, African oral histories, histories of humanitarianism, counter-insurgency warfare, colonial violence, decolonial praxis, and digital heritage.

Research

My forthcoming book Women’s Lives Behind the Wire: Forced Resettlement and Kenya’s Mau Mau Emergency, 1954-1960 (MUP) follows the lives of Gĩkũyũ women who lived through forced relocation, dispelling institutional myths of the interplay between colonial violence and humanitarian endeavours. Drawing together oral testimony with novel archival research, it offers a unique examination of the social entanglements of resettled women, humanitarian fieldworkers, and colonial state actors. It reveals that coercive state developmentalism and the reconfiguration of gendered social structures were central to colonial counterinsurgency campaigns.

I am also part of the organising committee of the Museum of British Colonialism (MBC). MBC is a joint UK/Kenya initiative founded to creatively communicate the history of British colonialism. MBC's mission, since January 2018, has been to restore and make visible the history of British Colonialism which has been suppressed, destroyed, or underrepresented for too long. Using digital methods, MBC is currently working to digitally map and reconstruct sites of punishment constructed by the British in Kenya. We are also developing an online archive/repository for other researchers. I’ve recently published on co-creation practices related to this network here.

I have held fellowships at the Kluge Center at the Library of Congress and the Global Humanitarianism Research Academy at the Leibniz Institute of European History, and am an Associate Fellow of the Royal Historical Society.

I’m currently supervising the following doctoral candidates:

• Lauren Cochrane, PhD in History, AHRC SWW DTP2 Doctoral Studentship (2022-2025), ‘Visualising Violence: Mau Mau and British Memories of Colonial Violence’.

I have consulted for BBC and Channel 4 documentaries, and have more recently been on the Advisory Panel for the Imperial War Museum's 'Emergency Exits' exhibition. I welcome invitations of this kind.

Teaching and Administration

I teach histories of Africa, gender, decolonisation, humanitarianism, as well as public history across our UG and PGT units. Decolonising our teaching and creating pathways for African-centred approaches has been at the core of my pedagogy. During my time at Bristol I have been nominated for the Inspiring and Innovative Teaching Award and Outstanding Dissertation Support Award in the Bristol Teaching Awards.

Units I teach/have taught on:

• Themes in the History of Colonialism (MA)
• Memory (Yr 3)
• Africa in Global Perspective (Yr2)
• Decolonisation (Yr 2)
• Remembering Transatlantic Enslavement (Yr 2)
• History in Public (Yr 2)
• Rethinking History (Yr 2)
• Decolonise the Future (Yr 1)
• Fight the Power: Democracy and Protest (Yr 1)
• Gender in the Modern World (Yr 1)
• Modern Revolutions (Yr 1)
• Slavery (Yr 1)
• Approaching the Past (Yr 1)

I am currently the department’s Admissions Officer and have previously held the posts Director of Exams and Head of Year One.

Contact

Email: bethany.rebisz@bristol.ac.uk

Phone: +44 117 455 7066

Bluesky: @Brebisz

My pronouns are she/her/hers.

Consultation hours

Please sign up for a meeting here.