African Studies

Editor in Chief | Editorial Board | Articles and Contributors

The birth of independent African nations, the rise of the Civil Rights movement and African-American Studies in the U.S., and the end of the Cold War all prompted the emergence of African Studies as an important area of inquiry in Africa, Europe, and North America. Founded as Africa was emerging from centuries of the slave trade and foreign domination, the field has sought to displace racist foreign notions to explore African perspectives on art, culture, economics, geography and the environment, ancient and modern history, literature, music, politics, religion, science and thought, and society.

Over more than half a century, the field has emerged as a diverse multidisciplinary effort that spans multiple epistemologies and methodologies, making it challenging for students and scholars to be informed about every applicable area. And given the diversity of African environments and peoples it is difficult to appreciate both its broad similarities and complex specificities. We have thus combined broad introductions to such subjects as African society, politics, or literature with specific studies of individual peoples, states, or literary traditions to enable the user to appreciate Africans’ distinctiveness as well as their diversity.

Since the literature on African Studies is diverse, fast moving, controversial, and scattered among unfamiliar sources, we have asked leading scholars to identify the most significant themes and areas of study in their fields, recommend the best sources for exploring them, and discuss these works conceptual and empirical significance to provide a series of guided studies through the diverse approaches to a wide array of complex subjects. A great deal of this work has moved online with the most recent scholarship, research, and statistics appearing in online databases. With advances in online searching and database technologies, researchers and practitioners can easily access library catalogs, bibliographic indexes, and other lists that show thousands of resources that might also be useful to them. In this situation what is most needed is expert guidance. Researchers and practitioners at all levels need tools that help them filter through the proliferation of information sources to material that is reliable and directly relevant to their inquiries. Oxford Bibliographies in African Studies offers a trustworthy pathway through the thicket of information overload.

 

Editor in Chief

Thomas Spear is Professor of African History Emeritus at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, where in addition to teaching, he was Director of the African Studies Program and Chair of the History Department. He is a leading scholar of pre-colonial and East African history, and has published a large number of books and articles on the subject, including The Kaya Complex: A History of the Mijikenda Peoples of the Kenya Coast to 1900 (1978), Kenya’s Past: An Introduction to Historical Method in Africa (1981), The Swahili: Reconstructing the History and Language of an African Society, 800-1500 (with Derek Nurse, 1985), Mountain Farmers: Moral Economies of Land and Agricultural Development in Arusha and Meru (1997), Being Maasai: Ethnicity and Identity in East Africa (ed, with Richard Waller, 1993) and East African Expressions of Christianity (ed. with Isaria Kimambo, 1999). He has received fellowships from the John Simon Guggenheim Foundation as well as the National Endowment for the Humanities and the Social Science Research Council, served as editor of the Journal of African History, and taught previously at La Trobe University and Williams College.

 


STANDING EDITORIAL BOARD

The City College of New York
Indiana University
Emory University
Northwestern University
Marywood University
University of California, Los Angeles

FOUNDING EDITORIAL BOARD

University of New Hampshire
University of Cambridge
University of South Carolina
Dartmouth College
The City College of New York
Emory University
Indiana University
Northwestern University
Marywood University
University of Cape Town
University of California, Los Angeles
University of Victoria

ARTICLES AND CONTRIBUTORS

* = recently published

41512

University of Wisconsin—Madison

41207

University of Wisconsin—Madison
Haverford College
University Paris-West-Nanterre
Marquette University

42425

University of Cambridge

42879

Imo State University

41207

Henderson State University

41576

University of Florida

41207

University of Victoria

41911

University College London

42153

University College London

42338

University of Oxford

42549

African Architecture Matters Foundation

41207

Indiana University Bloomington
Indiana University Art Museum

41576

University of California, Los Angeles
Smithsonian Institution

42073

Wellesley College

42516

University of California at San Diego

42019

Columbia University

41968

Georgetown College

41450

Berry College

42153

Africa Center for Strategic Studies

41547

Cleveland State University

41605

Washington University in St. Louis

42184

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

41547

University of Oxford

41512

South Carolina State University

41911

University of Massachusetts Dartmouth

41605

Centre College

41331

Ohio University

41652

Northwestern University

41877

COMPAS, University of Oxford

41207

Whitworth University
University of Lubumbashi

41547

Stanford University
Florida International University

41207

Elon University

41968

Bucknell University

41207

Independent Scholar
Independent Scholar

41512

University of Cape Town

42247

American University
Davidson College

41479

Northwestern University

41207

Australian National University

41512

State University of New York at Oswego
Rice University

41207

University of California, Davis

41547

Swarthmore College

41207

University of Cambridge

41850

Texas Southern University

42425

Universidad Autónoma de Madrid

41820

Boston University

41725

George Washington University

41911

University of Wisconsin

41207

Tufts University
Tufts University

41605

University of the Western Cape

41576

University of Lagos

42425

The University of Iowa
Ben Gurion University of the Negev

42019

University of Helsinki

41207

Marywood University

41669

State University of New York College at Cortland

42390

Colgate University

41207

Elon University
Universität zu Köln

42852

The Graduate Institute of Geneva

41605

Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University

41547

University of Iceland

41605

Bryn Mawr College

41207

University of New Hampshire

41547

Northern Kentucky University

41877

Michigan State University

41940

University of Port Harcourt
University of Port Harcourt

41207

Clarion University

41547

University of California, Los Angeles

41576

University of Michigan
University of Michigan

41207

University of Wisconsin—Madison
University of Manchester

41576

Indiana University

42019

Davidson College
Davidson College

41911

University of California, Berkeley

41940

Monash University

41207

Old Dominion University

41576

The University of Kansas

41207

SOAS, University of London
Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique

41877

Wittenberg University

41512

Tennessee State University

41547

Fairfield University

41605

Northwestern University

41547

Harvard University
Harvard University
Harvard University

42247

George Mason University

41605

North Carolina State University

41512

Haverford College

42247

Pennsylvania State University
State University of New York at Oswego

42425

Pacific Lutheran University

41877

University of Wisconsin-Madison

42247

Georgia State University

41911

University of Texas, Austin

41207

Northwestern University

41512

Dartmouth College
The University of Kansas

41911

Wake Forest College

41968

University of South Africa

41479

University of Cape Town

41652

Northwestern University

41207

University of Port Harcourt
University of Port Harcourt
Georgia State University
Georgia State University
Universität zu Köln

41940

Georgia State University

41207

Universität zu Köln
Emory University

42338

Trent University

41207

University of the Witwatersrand
Texas State University—San Marcos
Public Services International

41652

University of St Andrews

41207

The City University of New York

41547

College of Charleston

41207

University of Massachusetts, Lowell

41877

Universidade da Integração Internacional da Lusofonia Afro-Brasileira

41547

University of Maine at Farmington
Long Island University

41207

University of Yaounde, Cameroon

41850

University of Wisconsin-Madison

41207

University of Cape Town
University of Cape Town
University of Cape Town

42247

University of California at Berkeley

42425

University of the Witwatersrand

41207

Kean University
University of Wisconsin—Madison
Michigan State University
SOAS, University of London
Texas Southern University

41605

Columbia University

41207

Moravian College
University of London

41877

Framingham State University

42390

University of Geneva

41940

University of Western Ontario

41207

Syracuse University

42123

New York University in Abu Dhabi

42516

University of Cape Town

41605

University of California, Los Angeles

41207

Fairfield University

41547

University of Leeds
University of Leeds

41207

Trinity College

42516

41207

University of California, Los Angeles
University of California, Los Angeles

41479

University of Wisconsin—Madison

41605

The Ohio State University

42549

University of Kent

42019

Indiana University Bloomington

41911

University of Birmingham

42123

Virginia Commonwealth University

41877

Northwestern University

41207

Bowdoin College

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