Lt. Col. Jochen S. Arndt, Ph.D. - Virginia Military Institute
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Lt. Col. Jochen S. Arndt, Ph.D.

Lt. Col. Jochen S. Arndt, Ph.D.

Deputy Director, Associate Professor

Office: 331 Scott Shipp Hall

Phone: 540-464-7476

Email: arndtjs@vmi.edu

Fields: African History, World History

Honors and Awards

  • VMI Jackson-Hope Prize for Excellence in Published Scholarly Work, 2023
  • VMI Thomas Jefferson Teaching Award, 2020
  • VMI Wilbur S. Hinman, Jr. ‘26 Research Award, 2020
  • VMI Dr. D. Rae Carpenter Award, 2017
  • Social Sciences Research Council, International Dissertation Research Fellowship
  • American Historical Association, Bernadotte E. Schmitt Research Grant
  • Army Historical Foundation, Distinguished Writing Award
  • Association for the Study of the Middle East and Africa, Best Conference Paper Award
  • Association for the Study of the Middle East Africa, Research Grants

Associate professor Jochen S. Arndt teaches courses in African and World history. He joined VMI in 2016 after receiving his Ph.D. from the University of Illinois at Chicago. VMI recognized Arndt’s teaching excellence with the Thomas Jefferson Teaching Award and the Wilbur S. Hinman Jr. ’26 Award (2020).

Arndt published his first book, Divided by the Word: Colonial Encounters and the Remaking of Zulu and Xhosa Identities with the University of Virginia Press and Wits University Press in 2022. He has also published a range of articles in leading journals, one of which received the Army Historical Foundation’s Distinguished Writing Award (2012). Most recently, he conducted research in the Military, Diplomatic, and Stasi archives in Germany for his new book project on the Cold War in Angola.

His research has led to invited talks at prestigious institutions such as Wits University, the University of Cape Town, the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science, and the Japan Association for African Studies. Arndt also serves an Honorary Research Scholar at the Archive and Public Culture Research Initiative at the University of Cape Town. VMI has recognized his excellence in scholarship with the Jackson-Hope Prize for Excellence in Published Scholarly Work and the Dr. D. Rae Carpenter Award (2023, 2017).

Arndt also serves as senior program director for the VMI Olmsted Study Abroad program, deputy director of the John A. Adams ’71 Center for Military History & Strategic Analysis, and faculty advisor to the Class of 2026.

Courses Taught

Conflict in Modern Africa
Cold War in Africa
History of South Africa
Africa in Modern Times
Africa in Premodern Times
World History I and II

Publications

Books

  • Divided by the Word: Colonial Encounters and the Re-Making of Zulu and Xhosa Identities. The University of Virginia Press, 2022; Johannesburg: Wits University Press, 2022.

Articles

  • “Engineered Zuluness: Language, Education, and Ethnic Identity in South Africa, 1835-1990,” Journal of the Middle East and Africa 10, no. 3 (Sept., 2019): 211-235.
  • “Struggles of Land, Language and Identity in Post-Apartheid South Africa: The Case of the Hlubi,” Journal of the Middle East and Africa 9, no. 1 (July, 2018): 1-26.
  • “What’s in a Word: Historicizing the Word ‘Caffre’ in European Discourses about Southern Africa, 1500-1800,” Journal of Southern African Studies 44, no. 1 (2018): 59-75.
  • “The True Napoleon of the West: General Winfield Scott’s Mexico City Campaign and the Origins of the U.S. Army’s Combined-Arms Combat Division,” The Journal of Military History 76, no. 3 (July 2012): 649-671.
  • “Treacherous Savages & Merciless Barbarians: Knowledge, Discourse, and Violence during the Cape Frontier Wars, 1834 -1853,” The Journal of Military History 74, no. 3 (July 2010): 709-735.
  • “The Highly Effective First Mississippi Volunteer Regiment in the Mexican War, 1846-1848,” The Journal of Mississippi History 69, no. 1 (June 2007): 63-78.
Presentations