Sarah Duff

Sarah Duff is a historian of age, gender, and reproduction in 19th- and 20th-century Africa and the British Empire. More specifically, she is a prominent scholar of the history of childhood and youth in Africa. Her work is having a significant impact on the field, as she has developed innovative and original methods for researching children, who often do not appear in traditional historical sources. More recently, her interests have evolved to focus on the histories of health and medicine in Africa. Her current book project is the first extensive study of sex education in South Africa. In 2022 Duff was awarded a competitive Mellon Foundation New Directions Fellowship, which allowed her to earn an M.Sc. in women’s health at the University of London and learn the science that underlies many of the historical questions she is asking. Duff earned her Ph.D. in modern history at the University of London and a B.A. and M.A. in history from Stellenbosch University in South Africa.