African Studies

Faculty List

  • R. Antabe, M.A., Ph.D (Western Ontario), Assistant Professor
  • B. Dahl, Ph.D. (Chicago), Assistant Professor
  • G. Daswani, M.Sc., Ph.D. (London), Associate Professor
  • G. Dewar, M.A. (Toronto), Ph.D. (Cape Town), Associate Professor
  • H. Dinani, M.A., (Toronto), Ph.D. (Emory), Assistant Professor
  • A. Hachimi, M.A., Ph.D. (Hawaii), Associate Professor
  • E. Harney, M.Phil, Ph.D. (London), Associate Professor
  • M. Hunter, M.A. (Natal), Ph.D. (California, Berkeley), Professor
  • C.S. Hossein, M.P.A (Cornell), Ph.D. (Toronto), Associate Professor
  • A. Ilmi, B.A. (Ryerson), M.A. (Toronto), Ph.D. (Toronto), Assistant Professor
  • T. Kepe, M.Sc. (Guelph), Ph.D. (Western Cape), Professor
  • K. Kilroy-Marac, Ph.D. (Columbia), Associate Professor
  • N. Kortenaar, M.A., Ph.D. (Toronto), Professor
  • M. Lambek, M.A., Ph.D. (Michigan), Professor Emeritus
  • N. Massaquoi, M.S.W., Ph.D. (Toronto), Assistant Professor
  • J. Ndayiragije, M.A., Ph.D. (Montreal-UQAM), Associate Professor
  • S.J. Rockel, M.A., Ph.D. (Toronto), Associate Professor
  • W. Tettey, M.A (British Columbia), Ph.D. (Queen’s), Professor
  • K. Vernon, B.A., M.A. (Simon Fraser), Ph.D. (Victoria), Associate Professor
  • B. von Lieres, M.A. (Witwatersrand), Ph.D. (Essex), Assistant Professor
  • Z. Wai, M.A (International University of Japan), Ph.D. (York), Associate Professor

Chair Email: gds.utsc@utoronto.ca
Program Supervisor: T. Kepe  Email: thembela.kepe@utoronto.ca

The world cannot be understood without Africa. African Studies aims to widen students' knowledge and experience of the second largest and complex continent, its peoples, and their diasporas. In coming to terms with its great diversity, students will discover Africans' important contributions to the world's artistic, literary, political, and religious ideas.

In many program courses, Africa, its peoples, and their cultures are situated in relation to the wider world. The study of historical interconnections with Europe, Asia, and the Americas highlights Africa's central role in world history and processes of globalization. Throughout the program, students explore the exciting recent developments in our understanding of African civilizations, thought, political and religious systems, as well as histories of slavery, colonialism, and nationalism. A number of courses emphasize African, Caribbean, and African-American cultural and artistic responses to modernity, racism, and liberation, as well as struggles for security and development.

The program, as a whole, challenges students to think in new innovative directions about Africa across the disciplines and to reject preconceived myths and stereotypes. Students with a Minor Program in African Studies will gain strong skills in critical analysis, research, writing, and communications. The program aims to go further to encourage an awareness of the relationships between the production and application of knowledge and the wider forces of global change, as well as a love of intellectual challenges.

The five learning objectives for the Minor Program in African Studies are as follows:

  1. Promoting an understanding of Africa’s deep historical importance in the world.
  2. Promoting awareness of the cultural and social diversity of African/African diaspora cultures, religions, languages, music, literature, and film.
  3. Promoting theoretical and methodological understandings of the importance of ’de-colonizing the study of Africa and its diaspora’.
  4. Promoting and deepening knowledge of the challenges facing contemporary Africa in its global dimensions.
  5. Promoting and deepening knowledge about the African diaspora experience, historically and in its contemporary dimensions.

Students who intend to complete the Minor Program in African Studies should include AFSA01H3 in their first-year course selection. Certain elective courses (e.g., ENGB22H3 and ENGD08H3)  have non-African Studies prerequisites. This may require that you take more than 4.0 credits to complete the program. Students should check the prerequisites carefully before selecting their courses.

For more information regarding African Studies, please visit the African Studies Program website.

Experiential Learning and Outreach

For a community-based experiential learning opportunity in your academic field of interest, consider the course CTLB03H3, which can be found in the Teaching and Learning section of the Calendar.

african studies Programs

MINOR PROGRAM IN AFRICAN STUDIES (ARTS)

Program Coordinator: Arifa Akhter Nitol Email: arifa.nitol@utoronto.ca

Program Requirements
Students must complete 4.0 credits, 1.0 credit of which must be at the C- or D-level

1. 1.0 credit as follows:
AFSA01H3/​HISA08H3 Africa in the World: An Introduction
AFSB01H3/​HISB52H3 African Religious Traditions Through History

2. 1.0 credit from the following (students should check course descriptions for prerequisites):
AFSA03H3/​IDSA02H3 Experiencing Development in Africa
AFSB05H3/​ANTB05H3 Culture and Society in Africa
AFSB50H3/​HISB50H3 Africa in the Era of the Slave Trade
AFSB51H3/​HISB51H3 Africa from the Colonial Conquests to Independence
AFSB54H3/​HISB54H3 Africa in the Postcolonial Era
AFSC30H3/​HISC96H3 Language and Society in the Arab World
AFSC52H3/​HISC52H3/​VPHC52H3 Ethiopia: Seeing History
AFSC53H3/​WSTC10H3 Gender and Critical Development
AFSC55H3/​HISC55H3 War and Society in Modern Africa
AFSC70H3/​HISC70H3 The Caribbean Diaspora
AFSC97H3/​HISC97H3 Women and Power in Africa
AFSD07H3/​IDSD07H3 Extractive Industries in Africa
AFSD51H3/​HISD51H3 Southern Africa: Colonial Rule, Apartheid and Liberation
AFSD52H3/​HISD52H3 East African Societies in Transition
AFSD53H3/​GASD53H3/​HISD53H3 Africa and Asia in the First World War

3. 2.0 credits from the following list (students should check course descriptions for prerequisites):

Note: Though not required, students are encouraged to specialize in one of the areas of concentration below.

Africa the Continent
AFSA03H3/​IDSA02H3 Experiencing Development in Africa (if not used in Requirement 2)
AFSB05H3/​ANTB05H3 Culture and Society in Africa (if not used in Requirement 2)
AFSB50H3/​HISB50H3 Africa in the Era of the Slave Trade (if not used in Requirement 2)
AFSB51H3/​HISB51H3 Africa from the Colonial Conquests to Independence (if not used in Requirement 2)
AFSB54H3/​HISB54H3 Africa in the Postcolonial Era (if not used in Requirement 2)
AFSC52H3/​HISC52H3/​VPHC52H3 Ethiopia: Seeing History (if not used in Requirement 2)
AFSC53H3/​WSTC10H3 Gender and Critical Development (if not used in Requirement 2)
AFSC55H3/​HISC55H3 War and Society in Modern Africa (if not used in Requirement 2)
AFSC97H3/​HISC97H3 Women and Power in Africa (if not used in Requirement 2)
AFSD07H3/​IDSD07H3 Extractive Industries in Africa (if not used in Requirement 2)
AFSD51H3/​HISD51H3 Southern Africa: Colonial Rule, Apartheid and Liberation (if not used in Requirement 2)
AFSD52H3/​HISD52H3 East African Societies in Transition (if not used in Requirement 2)
AFSD53H3/​GASD53H3/​HISD53H3 Africa and Asia in the First World War (if not used in Requirement 2)
(ANTC06H3) African Cultures and Societies II: Case Studies
ENGB22H3 Contemporary Literature from Africa
ENGD08H3 Topics in African Literature
GGRC25H3 Land Reform and Development
HISD50H3 Southern Africa: Conquest and Resistance, 1652-1900
POLC80H3 International Relations of Africa
VPHB50H3 Africa through the Photographic Lens
(VPHB65H3) Exhibiting Africa: Spectacle and the Politics of Representation
Note: We that students interests in courses from the above customer expanded their language skills in Swahili

The Black Diaspora
AFSC70H3/​HISC70H3 The Caribbean Diaspora (if not used in Requirement 2)
ENGB17H3 Contemporary Literature from the Caribbean
ENGC14H3 Black Canadian Literature
ENGD13H3 Rap Poetics
(ENGD61H3) James Baldwin, the African American Experience, and the Liberal Imagination
FREB28H3 The Francophone World
FREB35H3 Francophone Literature
FREC47H3 Pidgin and Creole Languages
FREC83H3 Cultural Identities and Stereotypes in the French-Speaking World
HISB02H3 The British Empire: A Short History
HISC08H3 Colonialism on Film
HISC09H3 Pirates of the Caribbean
HISC34H3 Race, Segregation, Protest: South Africa and the United States
HISC39H3 Hellhound on My Trail: Living the Blues in the Mississippi Delta, 1890-1945
HISC68H3 Constructing the Other: Orientalism through Time and Place
HISD70H3 History of Empire and Foods
IDSC19H3/​AFSC19H3 Community-driven Development: Cooperatives, Social Enterprises and the Black Social Economy
IDSD16H3/​AFSD16H3 Africana Political Economy in Comparative Perspective
POLC31H3 Contemporary Africana Social and Political Philosophy
POLD74H3 The Black Radical Tradition

North Africa and the Middle East
AFSC30H3/​HISC96H3 Language and Society in the Arab World (if not used in Requirement 2)
CLAC05H3/​HISC10H3 Beyond Cleopatra: Decolonial Approaches to Ancient Egypt
ENGC51H3 Contemporary Arab Women Writers
HISC96H3 Language and Society in the Arab World

HISD57H3 Conflict in the Horn of Africa, 13th through 21st Centuries
HISD63H3 The Crusades: I
HISD64H3 The Crusades: II
(LGGA40H3) Introductory Modern Standard Arabic I
(LGGA41H3) Introductory Modern Standard Arabic II
(LGGB42H3) Intermediate Modern Standard Arabic I
(LGGB43H3) Intermediate Modern Standard Arabic II
(LGGB45H3) Modern Standard Arabic I for Students with Prior Background
POLC96H3 State Formation and Authoritarianism in the Middle East
POLC97H3 Protest Politics in the Middle East
SOCC29H3 Family and Gender in the Middle East
WSTC13H3 Women, Gender and Islam

Africa and Toronto
CITC01H3 Urban Communities and Neighbourhoods Case Study: East Scarborough
FREC10H3 Community-Based Learning in the Francophone Community
GGRC33H3 The Toronto Region
HISC45H3 Immigrants and Race Relations in Canadian History
SOCD21H3 Immigrant Scarborough
WSTB06H3 Women in Diaspora

Note: Not all courses in Requirement #2 and #3 are offered every year.

African Studies Courses

AFSA01H3 - Africa in the World: An Introduction

An interdisciplinary introduction to the history and development of Africa with Africa's place in the wider world a key theme. Students critically engage with African and diasporic histories, cultures, social structures, economies, and belief systems. Course material is drawn from Archaeology, History, Geography, Literature, Film Studies, and Women's Studies.

Same as HISA08H3

Exclusion: HISA08H3, NEW150Y
Breadth Requirements: History, Philosophy and Cultural Studies

AFSA03H3 - Experiencing Development in Africa

This experiential learning course allows students to experience first hand the realities, challenges, and opportunities of working with development organizations in Africa. The goal is to allow students to actively engage in research, decision-making, problem solving, partnership building, and fundraising, processes that are the key elements of development work.
Same as IDSA02H3

Exclusion: IDSA02H3
Enrolment Limits: 80
Breadth Requirements: Social and Behavioural Sciences
Course Experience: Partnership-Based Experience

AFSB01H3 - African Religious Traditions Through History

An interdisciplinary introduction to African and African diasporic religions in historic context, including traditional African cosmologies, Judaism, Christianity, Islam, as well as millenarian and synchretic religious movements.

Same as HISB52H3

Exclusion: HISB52H3, (AFSA02H3)
Recommended Preparation: AFSA01H3/HISA08H3
Breadth Requirements: History, Philosophy and Cultural Studies

AFSB05H3 - Culture and Society in Africa

An overview of the range and diversity of African social institutions, religious beliefs and ritual, kinship, political and economic organization, pre-colonial, colonial and post-colonial experience.
Same as ANTB05H3

Prerequisite: AFSA01H3 or ANTA02H3
Exclusion: ANTB05H3
Breadth Requirements: Social and Behavioural Sciences

AFSB50H3 - Africa in the Era of the Slave Trade

An introduction to the history of Sub-Saharan Africa, from the era of the slave trade to the colonial conquests. Throughout, the capacity of Africans to overcome major problems will be stressed. Themes include slavery and the slave trade; pre-colonial states and societies; economic and labour systems; and religious change.
Same as HISB50H3

Prerequisite: Any modern history course, or AFSA01H3
Exclusion: HISB50H3, (HISC50H3), HIS295H, HIS396H, (HIS396Y)
Breadth Requirements: History, Philosophy and Cultural Studies

AFSB51H3 - Africa from the Colonial Conquests to Independence

Modern Sub-Saharan Africa, from the colonial conquests to the end of the colonial era. The emphasis is on both structure and agency in a hostile world. Themes include conquest and resistance; colonial economies; peasants and labour; gender and ethnicity; religious and political movements; development and underdevelopment; Pan-Africanism, nationalism and independence.
Same as HISB51H3

Exclusion: HISB51H3 and (HISC51H3) and HIS396H and (HIS396Y)
Recommended Preparation: AFSA01H3/HISA08H3 or AFSB50H3 or HISB50H3 strongly recommended.
Breadth Requirements: History, Philosophy and Cultural Studies

AFSB54H3 - Africa in the Postcolonial Era

Africa from the 1960s to the present. After independence, Africans experienced great optimism and then the disappointments of unmet expectations, development crises, conflict and AIDS. Yet the continent’s strength is its youth. Topics include African socialism and capitalism; structural adjustment and resource economies; dictatorship and democratization; migration and urbanization; social movements.
Same as HISB54H3

Prerequisite: AFSA01H3 or AFSB51H3 or 0.5 credit in Modern History
Exclusion: HISB54H3, NEW250Y1
Breadth Requirements: History, Philosophy and Cultural Studies

AFSC03H3 - Contemporary Africa: State, Society, and Politics

This course is intended as an advanced critical introduction to contemporary African politics. It seeks to examine the nature of power and politics, state and society, war and violence, epistemology and ethics, identity and subjectivities, history and the present from a comparative and historical perspective. It asks what the main drivers of African politics are, and how we account for political organization and change on the continent from a comparative and historical perspective.

Same as IDSC03H3.

Prerequisite: [IDSA01H3 or AFSA01H3] or by instructor’s permission
Exclusion: IDSC03H3
Enrolment Limits: 40
Breadth Requirements: Social and Behavioural Sciences

AFSC19H3 - Community-Driven Development: Cooperatives, Social Enterprises and the Black Social Economy

This course introduces students to alternative business institutions (including cooperatives, credit unions, worker-owned firms, mutual aid, and social enterprises) to challenge development. It investigates the history and theories of the solidarity economy as well as its potential contributions to local, regional and international socio-economic development. There will be strong experiential education aspects in the course to debate issues. Students analyze case studies with attention paid to Africa and its diaspora to combat exclusion through cooperative structures.

Same as IDSC19H3

Prerequisite: AFSA01H3 or IDSA01H3 or POLB90H3 or permission of the instructor
Exclusion: IDSC19H3
Enrolment Limits: 45
Breadth Requirements: Social and Behavioural Sciences
Course Experience: University-Based Experience

AFSC30H3 - Language and Society in the Arab World

An examination of the relationship between language, society and identity in the Arab world, with special emphasis on North Africa. Topics include: colonial and postcolonial periods; the role of Arabic in pan-Arab identity; multilingualism, class and education; ideologies of gender and language; and ethno-linguistic revitalization among Berbers in North Africa.
Same as HISC96H3

Prerequisite: Any B-level course in African Studies, Linguistics, History, or Women's and Gender Studies
Exclusion: HISC96H3
Enrolment Limits: 50
Breadth Requirements: Arts, Literature and Language

AFSC52H3 - Ethiopia: Seeing History

This course uses a focus on material history and visual culture to explore Ethiopia from the fourth through the nineteenth century, with particular emphasis on the Christian Church, the monarchy, links with both the Mediterranean world and the Indian subcontinent, and the relationship of individuals to their social, economic, artistic and geographic environments.
Same as HISC52H3 and VPHC52H3

Prerequisite: [1.0 credit in History] or [VPHA46H3 and an additional 1.0 credit in VPH courses]
Exclusion: HISC52H3, VPHC52H3
Breadth Requirements: History, Philosophy and Cultural Studies

AFSC53H3 - Gender and Critical Development

How development affects, and is affected by, women around the world. Topics may include labour and economic issues, food production, the effects of technological change, women organizing for change, and feminist critiques of traditional development models.

Same as WSTC10H3

Prerequisite: [AFSA03H3/IDSA02H3 or IDSB01H3 or IDSB02H3] or [[WSTA01H3 or WSTA03H3] and [an additional 0.5 credit in WST courses]]
Exclusion: WSTC10H3
Breadth Requirements: Social and Behavioural Sciences

AFSC55H3 - War and Society in Modern Africa

Conflict and social change in Africa from the slave trade to contemporary times. Topics include the politics of resistance, women and war, repressive and weak states, the Cold War, guerrilla movements, resource predation. Case studies of anti-colonial rebellions, liberation wars, and civil conflicts will be chosen from various regions.
Same as HISC55H3

Prerequisite: Any 4.0 credits, including: AFSB50H3/HISB50H3 or AFSB51H3/HISB51H3 or (HISC50H3) or (HISC51H3)
Exclusion: HISC55H3
Breadth Requirements: History, Philosophy and Cultural Studies

AFSC70H3 - The Caribbean Diaspora

The migration of Caribbean peoples to the United States, Canada, and Europe from the late 19th century to the present. The course considers how shifting economic circumstances and labour demands, the World Wards, evolving imperial relationships, pan-Africanism and international unionism, decolonization, natural disasters, and globalization shaped this migration.
Same as HISC70H3

Prerequisite: Any 4.0 credits, including 0.5 credit at the A- or B-level in HIS courses
Exclusion: NEW428H,HISC70H3
Breadth Requirements: History, Philosophy and Cultural Studies

AFSC97H3 - Women and Power in Africa

This course examines women in Sub-Saharan Africa in the pre-colonial, colonial and postcolonial periods. It covers a range of topics including slavery, colonialism, prostitution, nationalism and anti-colonial resistance, citizenship, processes of production and reproduction, market and household relations, and development.
Same as HISC97H3

Prerequisite: Any 4.0 credits, including: AFSA01H3/HISA08H3 or AFSB50H3/HISB50H3 or AFSB51H3/HISB51H3
Exclusion: HISC97H3
Breadth Requirements: History, Philosophy and Cultural Studies

AFSD07H3 - Extractive Industries in Africa

This course examines resource extraction in African history. We examine global trade networks in precolonial Africa, and the transformations brought by colonial extractive economies. Case studies, from diamonds to uranium, demonstrate how the resource curse has affected states and economies, especially in the postcolonial period.

Same as IDSD07H3

Prerequisite: [10.0 credits including [AFSA01H3 or IDSA01H3 or POLB90H3]] or permission of instructor
Exclusion: IDSD07H3
Enrolment Limits: 25
Breadth Requirements: History, Philosophy and Cultural Studies

AFSD16H3 - Africana Political Economy in Comparative Perspective

This course analyzes racial capitalism among persons of African descent in the Global South and Global North with a focus on diaspora communities. Students learn about models for self-determination, solidarity economies and cooperativism as well as Black political economy theory.

Same as IDSD16H3

Prerequisite: [10.0 credits including [AFSA01H3 or IDSA01H3 or POLB90H3]] or permission of instructor
Exclusion: IDSD16H3
Enrolment Limits: 25
Breadth Requirements: Social and Behavioural Sciences
Course Experience: University-Based Experience

AFSD20H3 - Thinking Conflict, Security, and Development

This course offers an advanced critical introduction to the security-development nexus and the political economy of conflict, security, and development. It explores the major issues in contemporary conflicts, the securitization of development, the transformation of the security and development landscapes, and the broader implications they have for peace and development in the Global South.

Same as IDSD20H3.

Prerequisite: [12.0 including (IDSA01H3 or AFSA01H3 or POLC09H3)] or by instructor’s permission
Exclusion:
Enrolment Limits: 25
Breadth Requirements: Social and Behavioural Sciences

AFSD51H3 - Southern Africa: Colonial Rule, Apartheid and Liberation

A seminar study of southern African history from 1900 to the present. Students will consider industrialization in South Africa, segregation, apartheid, colonial rule, liberation movements, and the impact of the Cold War. Historiography and questions of race, class and gender will be important. Extensive reading and student presentations are required.
Same as HISD51H3
Africa and Asia Area

Prerequisite: 8.0 credits including AFSB51H3/HISB51H3 or HISD50H3
Exclusion: HISD51H3
Enrolment Limits: 15
Breadth Requirements: History, Philosophy and Cultural Studies

AFSD52H3 - East African Societies in Transition

A seminar study of East African peoples from late pre-colonial times to the 1990's, emphasizing their rapid although uneven adaptation to integration of the region into the wider world. Transitions associated with migrations, commercialization, religious change, colonial conquest, nationalism, economic development and conflict, will be investigated. Student presentations are required.
Same as HISD52H3

Prerequisite: 8.0 credits including AFSB50H3/HISB50H3 or AFSB51H3/HISB51H3 or HISC55H3
Exclusion: HISD52H3
Enrolment Limits: 15
Breadth Requirements: History, Philosophy and Cultural Studies

AFSD53H3 - Africa and Asia in the First World War

This seminar course examines the First World War in its imperial and colonial context in Africa and Asia. Topics include forgotten fronts in Africa, the Middle East, Asia and the Pacific, colonial armies and civilians, imperial economies and resources, the collapse of empires and the remaking of the colonial world.

Same as GASD53H3 and HISD53H3

Prerequisite: 8.0 credits, including: [1.0 credit in AFS, GAS, or Africa and Asia area HIS courses]
Exclusion: GASD53H3, HISD53H3
Enrolment Limits: 15
Breadth Requirements: History, Philosophy and Cultural Studies

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