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sean hanretta

Sean Hanretta

Assistant Professor of African History

E-mail: hanretta@stanford.edu
Website: http://www.stanford.edu/~hanretta/

Full Contact Information

At Stanford Since 2004

Ph.D., University of Wisconsin-Madison; M.A., University of Wisconsin; B.A., The Colorado College

Bio Sketch:

Sean Hanretta received his Ph.D. in History from the University of Wisconsin-Madison in 2003 and has taught at Stanford since 2004. He specializes in the intellectual and cultural history of West Africa. His particular interests are the history of Islam in Africa and of African religions more generally. Past research has focused on Sufism in Francophone West Africa. His current projects focus on Islamic political identity in Accra and on wedding and funeral reform in colonial and postcolonial Gold Coast/Ghana. He also has strong interests in historical theory and methodology, the history of the African diaspora, and comparative histories of slavery.

Courses Taught

  • Islam in Africa
  • Nationalism, Pan-Africanism and Beyond
  • Africa in the Twentieth Century
  • History without Documents
  • Worlds of Islam (team taught)

Selected Publications

  • “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).
  • “Women, Marginality and the Zulu State: Women's Institutions and Power in the Early Nineteenth Century,” Journal of African History 39 (1998), 389-415.
  • “Muslim Histories, African Societies: the Venture of Islamic Studies in Africa,” Journal of African History, 46:3 (2005), 479-492.

In Preparation

  • “The Suffering of Out Father”: Sufism and Social Transformation in French West Africa
  • Developing Love and Death: Reforming Muslim Weddings and Funerals in the Gold Coast

Awards

  • Mellon Fellow, 1995-1996
  • SSRC Fellow, 1998-1999, 2000-2001
  • Fulbright Fellow, 2000-2001