[1] Semley's interest in history and African studies was furthered graduate courses she took by Robert Harms, Angelique Haugerud, Christopher Miller, and Diana Wylie.
[1] Her dissertation was titled Kétu Identities: Islam, Gender, and French Colonialism in West Africa, 1850s-1960s.
She joined the faculty at the College of the Holy Cross in 2011 where she was a professor in the history department.
[3] She specializes in modern West Africa, French imperialism, gender, and the Atlantic World.
[4] In 2020, Semley became the editor-in-chief of History in Africa, a scholarly journal of the African Studies Association.