Mahmood Mamdani

Mahmood Mamdani
20th Director of Makerere Institute of Social Research
Assumed office
June 2010
Preceded byNakanyike Musisi
Director of the Institute of African Studies, Columbia University
In office
1999–2004
Preceded byGeorge Bond
Succeeded byMamadou Diouf
Director of the Centre for African Studies, University of Cape Town
In office
1996–1999
Personal details
Born (1946-04-23) 23 April 1946
Bombay, Bombay Presidency, British India
NationalityUgandan
SpouseMira Nair (m. 1991)
Children1 (Zohran Mamdani)
Residence(s)Kampala, Uganda
New York City, U.S.
Alma materUniversity of Pittsburgh (BA)
Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy (MA)
Harvard University (PhD)
ProfessorshipsUniversity of Dar es Salaam (1973–79)
Makerere University (1980–93)
University of Cape Town (1996–99)
Notable work(s)Citizen and Subject: Contemporary Africa and the Legacy of Late Colonialism
Notable awardsHerskovits Prize (1997)
Lenfest Award (2011)

Mahmood Mamdani, FBA (born 23 April 1946) is a Ugandan academic, author, and political commentator of Indian ancestry, based in New York City. He is the Herbert Lehman Professor of Government and a Professor of Anthropology, Political Science and African Studies at Columbia University, and was previously the director of the Makerere Institute of Social Research (MISR) in Kampala, Uganda from 2010 until February 2022. He also serves as the Chancellor of Kampala International University, in Uganda. Mamdani specialises in the study of African and international politics, colonialism and post‐colonialism, and the politics of knowledge production.