The Pan-African Data Project Team

The people behind the Pan-African Data Project

From its inception in 2019, the Pan-African Data Project has been led by Roopika Risam and shaped by many hands — a collaborative effort among scholars, technologists, and students, credited below, who have been working to document the networks of Pan-Africanism. A narrative description of contributions from the team is available on our History & Futures page.

PADP History & Futures

Delegates to 1921 Pan-African Congress sitting in a row on a dais

Delegates to the Second Pan-African Congress, Brussels, 1921. Public domain.

Phase I (2019-2022)

Project Director

Roopika Risam, Salem State University — Project design, project management, data curation, data verification

Salem State Student Team

Project design — Jennifer Powers '18, G'19

Data curation — Jennifer Powers '18, G'19, Hibba Nassereddine '18, G'19

Data verification — Jennifer Powers '18, G'19, Hibba Nassereddine '18, G'19

Phase II (2022-2025)

Project Director

Roopika Risam, Dartmouth College — Project design, project management, data curation, data verification, technical implementation

Performant Software Team

Team lead — Jamie Folsom

Project management — Anindita Basu Sempere

Design — Chelsea Giordan

Technical implementation — Derek Leadbetter, Ben Silverman, Rebecca Black, Camden Mecklem

Dartmouth Student Team

Data curation — Nyashazadshe Jongwe '26, Vy Nguyen '26, Ore James '25, Mikayla Walker G'24, Lethokuhle Msimang G'24

Data verification — Mikayla Walker G'24

Technical implementation — Mikayla Walker G'24

Acknowledgments

We are grateful to the following colleagues and friends for their consultation, collaboration, and support for the Pan-African Data Project:

Marisa Parham, Jeffrey Moro, and Andrew W. Smith of African American Digital and Experimental Humanities (AADHum) at the University of Maryland, College Park for consulting on design and technical implementation during Roopika Risam's fellowship at AADHum
Amara Thornton, historian and co-investigator of the Beyond Notability project, for consulting on data, design, technical implementation, and dissemination
Jennifer Guiliano at Indiana University Indianapolis for advice on historical data and web authorities
Caroline Bassett, Leonardo Impett, and Siddharth Soni at Cambridge Digital Humanities for discussions of the project during Roopika Risam's fellowship at University of Cambridge
Rachel Leow at University of Cambridge, Su Lin Lewis at University of Bristol, and Carolien Stolte at University of Leiden for sharing data from the Afro-Asian Networks project
Jacqueline Wernimont at Dartmouth College for sustaining conversations on data, place, and historical thinking
Casey Hess and Karyn Scheiner at Dartmouth College for administrative support
David Palfrey for advice on Wikidata
Dennis Cassidy for design advice and usability testing

Licensing

Citation

To cite this page, please use: Risam, Roopika, et al. 2025. "The Pan-African Data Project Team." The Pan-African Data Project. https://www.panafricandata.org/en/pages/padp-team/.