
Assistant Professor
At
of African religions more generally. Past research has focused on Sufism in
Francophone West Africa and his current work is on wedding and funeral
reforms in colonial and
post-colonial
historical theory, African diaspora studies, and comparative studies of
slavery.
Education:
Mellon Fellow, 1995-1996
SSRC Fellow, 1998-1999, 2000-2001
Fulbright Fellow, 2000-2001
Courses Taught:
[*Please note: many of the course descriptions in the History section of the Stanford Bulletin are inaccurate or out of date; refer to the descriptions and syllabi bellow for the most recent information*]
Islam in
Intellectual and Cultural History of Modern Africa: description; syllabus
History without Documents: description; syllabus
African History through Literature and Film
African History links:
(Under Construction)
Stanford African History Links
The Culture of Diasporas in the Postcolonial Web
Course descriptions:
Though many people associate Islam with the
349C: History without Documents
Can history be written about places and times for which
there are no written sources? What about for people in literate societies who
themselves were illiterate or left no written traces? What kind of history can
be written under these circumstances? This colloquium explores this question
and provides a thorough overview of and some practical training in historical
methods for non-documentary sources. We will look at the use of oral
traditions, oral history, archaeology, ecological sources, historical
linguistics, ethnography, rituals, myths, songs and art in the reconstruction
of the past. Because some of these methods were pioneered by Africanists and
others are most frequently used to study the precolonial African past, examples
from the historiography of