Editor’s Note: This is the fourth installment in a series about Ohio University professors who come from different countries.
When Edna Wangui was planning her career path, she said coming to America was nowhere on her radar, even with three different continents already under her belt.
Wangui, now an associate professor in the geography department, studied in her home country of Kenya for her undergraduate degree, in Brazil for a post-graduate diploma and in Belgium for her master’s degree. It was only when she worked with Americans at the International Livestock Research Institute in Nairobi, Kenya, that she decided to pursue her Ph.D. in the United States.
“I thought they were really nice and kind people,” Wangui said. “A Ph.D. can take a long time; you’ll probably live there for four or five years. It better be in a place where you know people will be nice.”
Wangui said the move to the U.S. was the easiest because there wasn’t a language barrier. Kenya was colonized by Britain, so she learned English in school. She said she had to simplify her use of the English language because the style is used differently in America.
After attending Michigan State University, Wangui stayed in the States to teach at San Francisco State University. However, she said she knew she wouldn’t be there long-term because it lacked an African studies center, an aspect to a university she said is very important to her.
“It means there’s not just a critical mass of African scholars but also a critical mass of students interested in Africa,” Wangui said. “It is much more exciting when you’re teaching a geography of Africa class and you know you have people interested in Africa.”
Wangui said there are only about nine to 12 universities in the country at one time that have the government funding for an African studies center. Ohio University is one of those few universities. Wangui joined OU in 2006 with her husband Tom Smucker, an assistant professor of geography.
Smucker said he enjoys working with his wife, saying they “feed off each other’s energy.”
Wangui was under the mentorship of Yeong Kim, an associate professor of geography, until 2012. Kim said Wangui is an excellent addition to the department because she is a “true global citizen.”
“Some people assume all international faculty members have a global perspective, but some may not have traveled as much. American faculty may have traveled more than international faculty,” she said. “Diversity isn’t just racial or ethnic makeup. It’s very much about exposure to different systems and different people and different cultures.”
Ashley Doria, a first-year master’s student in the geography program, said Wangui is the whole reason she came to OU.
“I’ve never had a faculty member go to bat for me as much as she did,” Doria said. “She wrote letters of recommendation and sent me links to grants and funding before I was even accepted. … She’s definitely one of those people who was meant to be a professor. She’s passionate, caring and is brilliant.”
Though she said she is happy in the U.S., Wangui travels back to Africa almost every summer to see her family or to do research in Tanzania in East Africa.
“There’s just some comfort from being immersed in my own culture,” she said. “I feel like I go back to plug in and get energy for the next year.”
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