Connections you never imagined — between World War II and Cameroon, for instance — take center stage in Debora Johnson-Ross’ classes.

During World War II, men from Cameroon and Nigeria were drafted to fight for the British. Although they were paid, they had no choice in the matter, and they were frequently rounded up before they could notify their families.

That’s just one of the many surprising connections assistant professor Debora Johnson-Ross makes in her political science courses, which include Politics of Ethnicity and Nationalism and African Politics through Literature, which uses novels to humanize historical facts.

Perhaps one of the most important connections Johnson-Ross elucidates: the link between the African liberation movement and the American civil rights movement, which occurred simultaneously. In fact, African and African-American soldiers had much the same experience as they returned from WWII: “The propaganda was about … freedom, yet they went home to countries where they were oppressed,” she says.

Considering taking a class? Expect to read widely and to take field trips to places like the Smithsonian. But mostly, expect to explore connections that were once imperceptible.