Ryan Carty
Bio
Ryan Carty is an Assistant Professor of History at North Carolina State University. His research explores histories of modern West Africa with a focus on animals, the environment, and science and technology. His book project, Bad Behavior: A Decolonial History of a West African Animal Trade, 1850-Present, investigates West African approaches to animal behavior. In doing so, the book centers animals as historical actors, demonstrating how they participated in economic networks, scientific and technological systems, and agricultural development. He conducts research, including oral history and archival work, in Burkina Faso, France, Ghana, and Senegal.
Ryan contributes to digital humanities projects. His expertise includes structured data, text analysis, and interactive web-based visualizations. His past projects can be found on GitHub and his personal website. Previously, he worked with Matrix: Center for Digital Humanities and Social Sciences at Michigan State University.
Before his academic career, Ryan led monitoring, evaluation, research, and learning projects in West Africa. He continues to advise colleagues on projects related to technology and agriculture. Originally, he is from Greensboro, North Carolina.
Education
PhD History Michigan State University 2025
BA Science, Technology, and Society University of Pennsylvania 2013
Area(s) of Expertise
Modern West Africa; animal studies; environmental history; science and technology studies; and digital humanities.
Publications
- “To reduce this danger:” Rinderpest vaccines and African assistants in a Gold Coast laboratory, 1890–1964 , History of Science (2026)
- Before the Anti-Homosexuality Bill , Journal of West African History (2023)
- The enslaved ontology: Peoples of the historic slave trade , Journal of Web Semantics (2020)