Sean Hanretta

Assistant Professor
At Stanford since 2004
Sean Hanretta specializes in the intellectual and cultural history of
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: 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
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[*Please note: many of the course descriptions in the History section of the Stanford Bulletin are inaccurate or out of date; refer to the descriptions and syllabi bellow for the most recent information*]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 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
Course descriptions:
Though many people associate Islam with the
145A:
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