Mark W. Deets is an assistant professor of African and world history and director of the Alwaleed Center for American Studies and Research at The American University in Cairo. His research and teaching focus on 19^th and 20^th-century West African history, especially in the Senegambian region.

His first book, A Country of Defiance: Mapping the Casamance in Senegal, was published in 2023 with the New African Histories Series of Ohio University Press. In 2025, the book was awarded the Outstanding First Book Prize by the Association for the Study of the Worldwide African Diaspora (ASWAD). Deets has also published his work in History in Africa: A Journal of Debates, Methods, and Source Analysis; The Journal of African History; Cadernos de Estudos Africanos (Portugal) and the blog Africa Is a Country, among others.

Deets’s current research project is tentatively called A Social Diplomatic History of the Senegambia Confederation, 1982–1989. While Deets’s first book examined the legacy of the colonial partition in West Africa through a case of modern separatism, his second book will continue this examination of the colonial legacy, but through an opposite case of an attempt at union and federation that ultimately failed. In 1982, Senegalese officials were trying to form a union with The Gambia called the Senegambia Confederation, at the same time that Casamançais separatists were trying to secede from Senegal. Thus, the Senegambia Confederation came into existence in 1982, lasting until 1989, and providing a fascinating case study for anyone who has ever wondered why African leaders did not just dissolve the “artificial” colonial borders at independence and start over with “African” borders. For seven years, Senegal and The Gambia tried, and it did not work. Why? Deets endeavors to answer this question with a social-historical approach to the political and diplomatic history of the colonial origins, short lifespan and effects of the Senegambia Confederation. Deets calls this a “social” diplomatic history because he is interested in the ways that the choices of the diplomats and politicians affected the lives of ordinary people and, more importantly, the ways in which the choices of ordinary people affected the options available to the diplomats and politicians.

Deets also serves as book review editor for The Journal of West African History. When not studying African history, Deets likes to root for the Kansas City Chiefs, Royals, Sporting KC and Manchester United.