Smithsonian Journeys Experts

Jane Hooper is currently an associate professor of history at George Mason University where she teaches courses in global and Indian Ocean history, as well as the history of Africa and the slave trade. Prior to graduate school, Dr. Hooper lived in Madagascar for two years as a Peace Corps volunteer. She taught English to middle and high schoolers on the small island of Île Sainte Marie. This experience provided her with a love of travel and a desire to learn more about island communities in the Indian Ocean. She has published two books and several articles about the history of the ocean. Her work focuses on a variety of topics, from the history of slavery and slave trading to pirates and queens. Dr. Hooper is currently researching the experiences of those living in the Seychelles during the age of emancipation. She is also collaborating on a three-year project, funded by the National Endowment for the Humanities, entitled “Global Passages: Creating a Public Database of Slaving Voyages across the Indian Ocean and Asia.” The database will ultimately be incorporated into the SlaveVoyages website (slavevoyages.org). For these projects, she is undertaking archival trips to Mauritius and Réunion in fall 2024.