Bio
Dr. Leonard's academic work has focused on the intersection of history, sociology, and anthropology, most recently in his book Anthropology, Colonial Policy and the Decline of French Empire in Africa (Bloomsbury, 2020). As an intellectual historian, Dr. Leonard has published on the origin, movement, and exchange of ideas between and among Africans and Europeans on the nature of social structure and the appropriate form of political rule both during and after the colonial period.
His current research project follows a group of post-colonial West African intellectuals as they employed a non-linear understanding of time, allowing them to understand and describe past, present, and future simultaneously through creative approaches to social construction, and political form that relied on a careful analysis and application of narrative myths, tales, stories, and parables.
In 2019, he retired from the Air Force as a Lieutenant Colonel after 20 years of service as a career intelligence officer. He held assignments at various operational and staff levels, and also commanded at both the detachment and squadron levels.
Education
Doctor of Philosophy, History, Duke University (2012)
Master of Arts, History, Florida State University (2000)
Bachelor of Science, History, United States Air Force Academy (1999)
Professional Experience
Associate Professor of History, U.S. Air Force Academy, (2021-Present)
Assistant Professor of History, U.S. Air Force Academy, (2006-2009 and 2017-2021)
Honors & Awards
Air Force Office of Scientific Research 3-Year Research Grant (2023-2025)
Dean’s Humanities Research Grant, US Air Force Academy (2020-2021)
Duke University Department of History Dissertation Research Grant
Duke University Department of History Summer Research Grant
United States Institute for National Security Studies Research Grant
Institutional finalist, Heiser Award for Excellence in Teaching and Mentoring, 2022, 2023, 2024
Department Nominee, Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (SoTL) Research Award, US Air Force Academy, 2022, 2023
Department Nominee, McDermott Award for Outstanding Research in the Humanities, US Air Force Academy, 2020, 2022, 2023
Finalist, Fulbright Global Scholar Award, 2022
Institutional and Department Nominee, Baylor University Cherry Award for Undergraduate Teaching, US Air Force Academy, 2022
Department Nominee, Excellence in Inclusive Teaching Award, US Air Force Academy, 2021
Mastery of Teaching Community Fellow, US Air Force Academy, 2020-2022
Recipient, Outstanding Academy Educator Award, 2007-2008
Fellow, United States Military Academy Summer Seminar in Military History, 2007
Distinguished Graduate, United States Air Force Academy, 1999
Recipient, United States Air Force Academy Department of History Norstad Award for Outstanding Area History Major, 1999
Attestation, École de l’Air, Salon de Provence, France, 1998
Research and Scholarly Interests
African History especially North and West Africa
Intellectual History
Imperial and Colonial History
Modern European History
Publications
Academic Monographs
Anthropology, Colonial Policy and the Decline of French Empire in Africa. London: Bloomsbury, 2020.
Papers Published in Peer-Reviewed Journals
“Researching the Self: Autoethnography and Empathy in the University Classroom,” Transformative Dialogues 16, 1 (Fall 2023): 54-71.
“Amadou Hampâté Bâ and the Power of Time in the Social Reconstruction of West Africa,”Journal of West African History 9, 1 (Fall 2023): 1-26.
“Imaginative Links: Islam and Dreams of a Saharan French Empire,” Journal of North African Studies 28, 4 (2023): 952-975.
with DarAsia Elliot, “The Power of Comics in Undergraduate History Research,” World History Bulletin 38, 2 (Fall 2022): 17-21.
with Jackson Ayers, “Experiencing Course-Based Undergraduate History Research in a Technically Intensive Curriculum,” Perspectives in Undergraduate Research and Mentoring, 10.1 (Fall 2021), online.
“Escaping the Bind: Comparing Twenty-First Century US Counterinsurgency Doctrine and the French Response to the Algerian Revolution, 1955–1956,” Anthropology and History 25, 5 (Oct 2014): 627-647.
“‘They do not know how to deal with native unrest’: British intervention and unintended consequences in French North Africa, 1940-1946,” Journal of Colonialism and Colonial History 13, 2 (Fall 2012), online.
Papers Published in Edited Volumes
“Writing Against the Grain: Antenor Firmin and the Refutation of Nineteenth Century European Race Science” in Anywhere but Here: Black Intellectuals in the Atlantic World and Beyond, ed. Kendahl Radcliffe, Jennifer Scott, and Anja Werner (University Press of Mississippi, 2015): 27-46.
Papers Published in Non-Peer-Reviewed Journals
with Timothy D. Haugh, “Improving Outcomes: Intelligence, Surveillance, and Reconnaissance Assessment,” Air and Space Power Journal (Winter 2017): 4-15.