Sean Hanretta
Stanford University
Department of
History
450 Serra Mall,
Building 200
Stanford, CA
94305-2024
650.724.5434 •
hanretta@stanford.edu
curriculum vitae
Education:
Ph.D.-History
(2003) University of Wisconsin-Madison
Dissertation:
“Constructing a Religious Community in French West Africa: The Hamawi Sufis of
Yacouba Sylla”
M.A.-History (1997)
University of Wisconsin-Madison
B.A.-History,
magna cum laude (1994) The Colorado College
Employment:
Assistant Professor
- Stanford
University (since 2004)
Visiting Lecturer
- Dartmouth College
(Jan-June 2004)
Visiting Assistant
Professor
- The Colorado
College (Sept-Dec 2003)
Teaching Assistant
- University of
Wisconsin-Madison (1996-2002)
Scholarly
Publications:
“Muslim Histories, African Societies: the
Venture of Islamic Studies in Africa,” Journal
of African History 46 (2005), 479-492.
“Space and Conflict in the Elisabethville
Mining Camps, 1923-1938,” in A History of Prison and Confinement in Africa. Florence Bernault, ed. (Portsmouth: Heinemann,
2003).
“Space in the Discourses on the Elisabethville Mining
Camps: 1923 to 1938,” in Enfermement, prison et châtiments en Afrique: du
19e siècle à nos jours. Florence Bernault,
ed. (Paris: Karthala, 1999).
“Women,
Marginality and the Zulu State: Women’s Institutions and Power in the Early
Nineteenth Century,” Journal of African History 39 (1998), 389-415.
Publications
in
Preparation:
“The Suffering of Our Father”: Sufism and
Social Change in French West Africa, 1920-1960
“Narrating
Origins, Explaining Agency: Gender and Religious Reform in a West African Sufi
Community”
“Bankole’s
Conversion: Muslim Identity and Pan-Africanism in the Gold Coast”
Competitive Grants
and Fellowships:
Stanford Humanities
Lab: Animating the Archive Grant ($5,000)
Stanford Office of
Technology Licensing Research Incentive Award ($25,000)
VPUE Faculty Undergraduate
Research Grant ($3,875)
Stanford IIS-Hewlett
Foundation Research Award ($3,100)
Carter G. Woodson
Postdoctoral Fellowship (2003-2004) Declined
Annual FLAS Fellowship
(2002-2003) University of Wisconsin
Social Science
Research Council Dissertation Fellowship (2000-2001)
Fulbright-Hays
Dissertation Fellowship (2000-2001)
University
Fellowship (1996-2003) University of Wisconsin
Social Science
Research Council Predissertation Fellowship (1998-1999)
Honorary
MacArthur Fellow (1998-1999) University of Wisconsin
Vilas Fellowship
(1997-1998) University of Wisconsin
Summer FLAS
Fellowship (1997) University of Wisconsin
Mellon Fellowship in
Humanistic Studies (1995-1996)
Boettcher
Scholarship (1990-1994) The Colorado College
Courses
Taught:
“History without
Documents” Stanford University
“African History
before European Conquest” Stanford University
“Islam in Africa”
Stanford University
“Intellectual and
Cultural History of Modern Africa” Stanford University
“Africa until 1800”
Dartmouth College
“Africa since 1800”
Dartmouth College
“Nationalism and
Decolonization in Africa” Dartmouth College
“Religion in Africa
and the African Diaspora” Dartmouth College
“African
Religions in Historical Perspective” Colorado College
“Africa and Europe
until 1919” Colorado College
“The Emergence of
Modern Africa” Colorado College
“Africa and the
Making of the Atlantic World” Colorado College
“An Introduction to
Africa (interdisciplinary)” University of Wisconsin
“Islamic
History from 500 to 1500” (as TA) University of Wisconsin
“Africa from 1500
to1870” (as TA) University of Wisconsin
“Africa since 1870”
(as TA) University of Wisconsin
Teaching Honors:
Distinguished
Teaching Assistant Award (Spring 2000) University of Wisconsin
Other Awards and
Honors:
Genevieve Gorst
Herfurth Award (2000)
A.C. Jordan Prize in
African Studies (1996) University of Wisconsin
Graduate Seminar
Essay Prize (1996) University of Wisconsin
Other
Publications:
“Islam
and Postemancipation in French West Africa: Exploring the History of Yacouba
Sylla,” Items and Issues (Social Science Research Council) 3:1-2 (2002),
16-18.
Papers Presented:
“Defining
Muslim Communities in Colonial Gold Coast,” Historical Society of Ghana Annual
Meeting, Accra, Ghana, August 2006
“Ghostwriters
in the Archives: French Colonial Knowledge and African Religious Competition,” Empire
Lost: France and Its Worlds, Stanford University, April 2006
“Islam
and Emancipation in French West Africa: The Case of Yacouba Sylla,” Invited
Seminar, University of Ghana at Legon, September 2005
“Explanation and Narration in the History of a
West African Sufi Community: Gender and Agency among the Followers of Yacouba
Sylla,” Faculty Seminar, Center for African Studies, Stanford University, May
2005
“Traditions,
Oral Traditions, and the Traditional: Reflections on Categories of Sources and
Interpretations,” Pre-Colonial African History in a Post-Colonial Age:
University of Wisconsin African History Symposium, March 2005
“The
Meaning of Freedom: Islam and the End of Slavery in West Africa,” Africa Table,
Stanford University, February 2005
“Repaying
the Gift of Work: Yacouba Sylla and the Moral Economy of Sufi Labor in the
Ivory Coast,” African Studies Association Annual Meeting, October 2003
“Sufism
and ‘Afro-pessimism’ in Ouologuem’s Bound to Violence,” Colloquium on
Islam in African Literature, University of Wisconsin, November 1999
“The Uses
of History and Literature in Contemporary South Africa,” Midwest Graduate
Students African Studies Conference, February 1998
Special Training:
Intensive Arabic
Program (Summer 1998) Middlebury College
Intensive Bambara
Program (Summer 1997) University of California-Los Angeles
Intensive Latin
Program (Summer 1994) University of Washington-Seattle
Language
Competencies:
French: excellent
reading comprehension, conversational with errors
Arabic: good reading
comprehension, conversational with errors
Portuguese: good
reading comprehension, basic conversational
Bambara: basic
conversational
Hausa: basic
conversational
Soninke: beginning
conversational
Twi: beginning
conversational
Affiliations
and Honorary
Organizations:
American Historical
Association
African Studies
Association
Historical Society
of Ghana
Phi Beta Kappa