African History
Sciences Po
This seminar will encourage students to discuss approaches, sources and research that are shaping current debates on the history and historiography of Africa and African diaspora.
Students may read articles, books, and online resources, and participate in the seminar weekly discussion. They will also write a few essays and a research project.
African History, a modern discipline
Since its emergence as a western research discipline, African history works as a global, international workshop where historians debate and dialogue. This field is structured by multiple inequalities and fissures (access to resources, publishing policies, social inertias).
Historians of Africa must understand the ways in which historical narratives are produced in different places, on diverse medias, and from unequal social and cultural positions.
To built a research project in African history, historians need, beyond knowing the past, an understanding of the arguments and debates that animate the field (gender history, diaspora studies, history of biomedicine and public health, migrations, slave-trading, popular culture, consumerism, etc.).
To train in African history, one must also get familiarized with new perspectives on the appropriation of research outside of Africa, questions on the position of the researcher, and broader theoretical debates such as the decolonial movement. These debates and the publications that animate them, are, by nature, international and interdisciplinary.
Members of the seminar will learn to identify and discuss some of these debates. In return, they will be encouraged to refine their arguments, methodologies and the original contribution of their project (MA thesis or Ph.D.).
NB. The seminar demands to be able to read and discuss in French and in English.
Calendrier 2023-2024
Les séances se dérouleront au second semestre (début 2024)
