African History
The University of Florida has a strong tradition of graduate education in African history. Students receive a broad grounding in the field. Although Professors O’Brien and White have regional areas of specialization, we tend to teach topical graduate seminars – gender and religion, colonialism, the historiography of violence, to name a few examples. Ph. D. candidates are required to take at least four seminars in African history, and they must write research papers in at least three of them. UF has one of the top five African studies collections in our library, and we require students to take a one-credit African Bibliography course, taught every fall, to learn their way around this and other collections.
The Postcolonial Archive
While being grounded in African history, students are also trained in other subfields of history and in other disciplines. Students are required to take an inside minor field in another area of history; it is hoped that this is an area will help them contextualize their dissertations and provide them with a comparative perspective on African history. We require that Ph. D. candidates take two classes in another discipline (the so-called outside field) which allows them to work with the large and dynamic community of Africanist scholars connected with our Title VI Center for African Studies. The Center affords students exceptional opportunities for training in African languages and literature, African literature in French and English, as well as the core disciplines of Anthropology, Political Science, Geography, and Religion.
Graduate students in African history at UF are eligible for a range of funding opportunities. The Center for African Studies offers competitive fellowships for training in African languages: we offer Akan, Amharic, Arabic, Swahili, Wolof, Tswana, Yoruba, and Xhosa. The History Department offers a variety of funding opportunities as well. We expect our students to be able to do their dissertation research in Africa, and we work closely with them in writing proposals for their funding. One of our graduate students is currently a Fulbright Fellow doing dissertation research in South Africa; another is a visiting assistant professor at Old Dominion University in Virginia.
Frelimo marching band
Current graduate students in African History:
Stephanie Cirilio
Dissertation director: Luise White
Stephen Davis
Dissertation director: Luise White
Scott McPherson
Dissertation director: Luise White
Jessica Morey
Dissertation director: Sue O'Brien
Timothy Nevin
Dissertation director: Luise White
Ann Lee Omandi
Dissertation director: Luise White
