Sean Hanretta

Assistant Professor

At Stanford since 2004

Sean Hanretta specializes in the intellectual and cultural history of

West Africa. His particular interests are the history of Islam in Africa and

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 Ghana. He also has strong interests in

historical theory, African diaspora studies, and comparative studies of

slavery.

Education: Ph.D. University of Wisconsin, 2003 

M.A. University of Wisconsin, 1997 

B.A. Colorado College, 1994

Mellon Fellow, 1995-1996

SSRC Fellow, 1998-1999, 2000-2001

Fulbright Fellow, 2000-2001 

Curriculum vitae

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[*Please note: many of the course descriptions in the History section of the Stanford Bulletin are inaccurate or out of date; refer to the descriptions and syllabi bellow for the most recent information*]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 Africa: description; syllabus

Africa before European Conquest: description; syllabus

Intellectual and Cultural History of Modern Africa: description; syllabus

History without Documents: description; syllabus

African History links:

(Under Construction)

Stanford African History Links

The Culture of Diasporas in the Postcolonial Web

African Epics Resource Page

Course descriptions:

248/348: Islam in Africa

Though many people associate Islam with the Middle East, over 100 million Muslims live in sub-Saharan Africa and Islam has been a deep part of many African cultures for centuries. This course examines the diverse and complex relations between African Muslims and the broader Islamic tradition over the last 1200 years. Beginning with an exploration of the roots of the Islamic tradition and a discussion of the ways that tradition expanded and transformed, we will proceed roughly chronologically through the adoption, endogenization, and elaboration of this tradition by African Muslims. We will constantly pay attention to the interplay of religion, politics, culture and society, and to the ways a tradition can exercise an influence over someone who is nonetheless transforming that tradition radically. Above all, we will try to gain insight into the worldviews and lives of Africans who have considered themselves Muslims and to understand how and why those worldviews and experiences changed.

145A: Africa before European Conquest

The course will provide an episodic sketch of African history running from the earliest records up until the early nineteenth century, focusing on the ways knowledge about the natural, social, and spiritual worlds was linked to the exercise of power. Readings and discussions will explore how technological innovations affected the emergence of states and other forms of social complexity; how religious beliefs and practices were used to legitimate authority or undermine the legitimacy of authority; and how notions of health and healing knit together the physical and the social and gave meaning to gender and age relations. The course will also look at how the knowledge of the past was itself woven into relations of power and what the implications of this are for our own study of African history.

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 Africa will dominate. Some examples do however draw on scholarship on other parts of the world.