Sean Stilwell, Program
Director
History Department
Wheeler House, 133 So. Prospect St.
Burlington, VT 05405
802-656-2107
Sean.Stilwell@uvm.edu
UVM's small but dedicated Africanists offer a variety of courses
exploring
aspects of this complex and diverse continent that plays an important
role
in global economic, ecological and cultural welfare. The African
Studies
Program offers a comprehensive and interdisciplinary set of courses
pertaining
to the histories, people, cultures, environment, literature and
politics
of Africa, arguably the worlds most diverse and complex region.
We are especially proud of UVM alumni who have distinguished
themselves
as Africanists. These range from academic luminaries like Susan Preston
Blier,
Professor of Art History at Harvard, Peter Ellison, Professor of
Anthropology
and Dean of the Graduate College, Harvard and Ivan Karp National
Endowment
of the Humanities Professor Liberal Studies at Emory to several who
have
served in the Peace Corps and gone on to rewarding careers in fields as
diverse
as "development", journalism and teaching.
Many students declare a minor in African studies after spending a
semester
or even a year abroad in Africa. There are several excellent (and
reasonably
inexpensive) ways to do this in East, West or Southern Africa.
Many
students use data collected on these trips for their African Studies
Minor
independent paper.
There are a variety of programs in Africa available to UVM students
which
offer different experiences. Programs range from studying
politics
in a South African University to working with wildlife in Kenya or
Namibia.
Depending upon the program, accommodations can include tents,
hostels,
small hotels, private homes or educational institutions. Students
may
have an opportunity to learn and experience aspects of African culture
by
living with families such as the Maasai in Tanzania or Xhosa in South
Africa.
While others may decide to live on-campus and become more
familiar
with the campus culture or stay in nearby apartments or flats.
The
lengths of the programs are varied as well. Students can study
for
3-4 weeks during the summer, spend a semester or a full year abroad.
Generally credits should transfer and financial aid will travel with
he
student if the program is a UVM-approved study abroad program.
Currently,
there are about 9 approved programs that provide opportunities for
students
to study in 14 African countries. For further information contact
the
Office of International Education, 802-656-4296.
Beyond courses we offer several exciting activities ranging from
visiting
lecturers, film and video shows to a lively Africa House in the Living
and
Learning Center. We are particularly proud of NEWSA, the
Northeastern
Workshop of Southern Africa, which meets in Burlington every eighteen
months
and attracts internationally recognized scholars not only from North
America
but Africa and Europe. We are also establishing outreach
activities
with the Vermont African Society and collaborating with several other
institutions
in the area where there are Africanists.
FACULTY
ANTHROPOLOGY DEPARTMENT
Robert Gordon, Professor, came to UVM in 1979. He received his
B.A. and M.A. from the University of Stellenbosch and his Ph.D. from
the University of Illinois. His field work has been primarily in
Southern Africa and New Guinea. In Namibia he studied mineworkers and
Bushman genocide. His theoretical interests include politics and law,
visual and urban anthropology, development in third world and
culture change.
ENGLISH DEPARTMENT
Lokangaka Losambe, Professor and Chair of the Department
of English.
EDUCATION: B.A., M.A.
(Lubumbashi) in Literature; M.Ed. (TEFL), Wales Ph.D. (Ibadan).
COURSES TAUGHT: African Literature and Post-Colonial Theory.
SELECTED PUBLICATIONS: edited two books and published several articles
in scholarly journals on African literature and post-colonial theory.
PROGRAM CONNECTIONS: former Chair of the Department of English
Studies and Comparative Literature at Fort Hare University in South
Africa.
PRIMARY FIELDS OF RESEARCH: African Literature and Post-Colonial
Theory.
CURRENT PROJECT: currently working on a book entitled "African
Writers and the Discourse of Otherness"
HISTORY DEPARTMENT
Sean Stilwell received his Ph.D. from York University, Ontario,
Canada in 1999. He teaches African history at UVM, and specializes in
the political and social history of West Africa, especially Hausaland.
His other fields of interest include the history of slavery and the
slave
trade, comparative slavery, the history of Islam and urbanism in
Africa,
and the history of public health in colonial Africa. His recent
research
focused on the history and culture of slave soldiers and officials in
nineteenth-century West Africa. He is currently finishing a
manuscript for Heinemann's Social History of Africa Series that will be
entitled: "Paradoxes of Power: The Kano 'Mamluks' and Male Royal
Slavery in the Sokoto Caliphate, 1804-1903" that is based on archival
and oral fieldwork conducted in Nigeria between 1995-2000. He has
published articles on the British colonial regime and royal slavery
(Slavery and Abolition), on kinship, power and knowledge in royal slave
communities (African Economic History), on honor, shame
and the comparative dimension of royal slavery (Africa), and on
methodology
(History in Africa). He is currently planning to pursue a
second
project on the history of public health and disease in Nigerian
colonial
cities.
POLITICAL SCIENCE DEPARTMENT
Peter VonDoepp, Assistant Professor of Political Science.
B.A., University of New Hampshire; M.A., and Ph.D., University of
Florida. Professor VonDoepp focuses on African politics with
specific attention to democratization-related issues. His most
recent work examines the politics of judicial development in new
southern African democracies. He is co-editor of "The Fate of
Africa's Democratic Experiments: Elites and Institutions"
(Indiana, 2005). His work appears in Studies in Comparative
International Development, Political Science Quarterly, Journal of
Modern African Studies, Commonwealth and Comparative Politics, and
several edited volumes. His courses include Religion and
Politics, Comparative Democratization, and African Politics.
RELIGION DEPARTMENT
Vicki Brennan, Assistant Professor of Religion, Ph.D.
University of Chicago, 2007, M.A. University of Washington, 1997, B.A.,
Syracuse University, 1994. Prof. Brennan joined the UVM faculty
in 2007. She is a specialist on the religions of Africa, and is
especially interested in the relationships between religion, politics,
ritual, and music. She has conducted extensive field work in Nigeria
and in Nigerian immigrant communities in the United States. She is
currently working on a book project entitled Singing the Same Song:
Music, Religion and Civil Society in Nigeria which explores religion
and music as key sites through which members of the Yoruba middle class
(re)negotiate their social positions in the context of democratic
transition and economic liberalization in contemporary Nigeria. She has
also begun research on a new project which examines the relationships
between gospel music, national publics, and economic globalization in
Nigeria. At UVM Professor Brennan teaches courses in the Religion
Department on African religions, religion and music, and religion and
gender in Africa. She has also taught in the College of Arts and
Sciences’ Teaching Advisor Program (TAP).
SOCIOLOGY DEPARTMENT
Moustapha Diouf, Associate Professor of Sociology, Ph.D. University of Missouri, M.A.
University of Paris. Professor Diouf specializes in rural
sociology, social change and development in the Third World, and the
political economy of Third World social formations. He has previously
worked for UNESCO's Social
Science Research Department in Senegal. Some of his recent publications
include: "A New Dimension in the Legitimization Crisis in Senegal:
Exacerbation of the Contradictions between State and Civil Society," in
Rhukhsana A.
Siddiqui (ed..), Challenges to Democracy and Development:
Sub-Saharan
Africa in the 1990s (Greenwood-Praeger, 1997); "Teaching the Conflicts:
Race and Ethnic Relations," in Ball, Berkowitz, and Mzamane (eds.),
Multicultural Education: A Transdisciplinary Approach and "La
Construction d'une Nouvelle Gauche en Debat," (w. Mar Fall) SUD
Journal, November 1998. "L'Actualite
du Socialisme" (w. Mar Fall) is forthcoming in SUD Journal.
COLLEGE OF EDUCATION AND SOCIAL SERVICES
David Shiman is a Professor of Education and Co-Director of
the Center for World Education in the College of Education and Social
Services. He has lived in Tanazania, Kenya, South Africa, Ghana,
and Liberia
where he has conducted research and/or human rights education
workshops. He has written Teaching Human Rights, Economic and
Social Justice: A Human Rights Perspective and The Prejudice Book.
ASSOCIATE FACULTY
Sherwood Smith, Center for Cultural Pluralism, ED.D Ball
State
University, Research Assistant Professor Education, East Africa,
Swahili,
Education.
William Gibson, Ph.D. University of California, Berkeley,
Professor
of Economics, South Africa, taxation.
Bill Kelly, Emeritus Associate Professor of Community Development
and
Applied Economics.
Fred Magdoff, Ph.D. Cornell, Professor Plant and Soil Sciences,
Southern
Africa.
Justin Joffe, Ph.D. London, Professor Psychology.
Lyn Carew, Ph.D. Cornell, Professor of Animal and Food Sciences.
Last modified January 14 2010 10:02 AM
