Program Overview

Department of Historical Studies

The Department of Historical Studies offers a range of undergraduate and postgraduate programs.

Staff

The department is comprised of the following academic staff:

• Professor Adam Mendelsohn
• Associate Professor Sean Field
• Associate Professor Shamil Jeppie
• Associate Professor Bodhisattva Kar
• Associate Professor Mandisa Mbali
• Associate Professor Lance van Sittert
• Dr Athambile Masola
• Dr Camalita Naicker
• Dr Natasha Shivji
• Dr Anandaroop Sen
• Dr Lebogang Mokwena The department also includes adjunct lecturers:
  • Dr Ashley Eva Millar
  • Dr Nompilo Ndlovu Emeritus staff members are:
  • Emeritus Associate Professor Mohamed Adhikari
  • Emeritus Professor Vivian Bickford-Smith
  • Emeritus Professor Anne Mager
  • Emeritus Associate Professor Richard Mendelsohn
  • Emeritus Professor Howard Phillips
  • Professor Nigel Penn
  • Emeritus Professor Christopher Saunders
  • Emeritus Professor Milton Shain
  • Emeritus Professor Nigel Worden

Our Degrees

The department offers various degree programs for prospective students.

Undergraduate Studies

Undergraduate courses include:

• All Undergraduate Courses
• Gender and History
• Genocide: African Experiences
• Africa: Colonial & Post-Colonial
• Africa in Question: Ancient & Pre-colonial Africa between the Past & Present
• Memory, Identity and History
• Debates in Modern African Intellectual History
• Subjects to Citizens?: South Africa since 1900
• Conflict and Conquest: South Africa to 1900
• The Holocaust
• Empires and Modernities
• Connections and Interruptions
• Historical Methods
• African Economic History
• Africa since 1800: From Colonial Rule to Independence

Postgraduate Studies

Postgraduate programs include:

• Honours
  • HST4001H Research Essay/Project
  • HST4021H Advanced Historical Methods and Approaches
  • HST4034F Oral History: Method, Practice and Theory
  • HST4040F A History of Violence: Perspectives from the Global South
  • HST4041F Histories of Land and Labour Struggles in South Africa
  • HST4042F Theory and Method in Histories of Medicine, Health and Healing
  • HST4043S Writing and History
  • HST4056S Themes in Everyday History
  • HST4058F/S Themes in Contemporary South African Rural History
  • HST4063F/S Debates in the History of the Indian Ocean World
  • HST4064F Materiality and Power
• Coursework Master's
  • HST5014S Traumatic Traces: History, Memory and Beyond
  • HST5034F Oral History: Method, Practice and Theory
  • HST5040F A History of Violence: Perspectives from the Global South
  • HST5041F Histories of Land and Labour Struggles in South Africa
  • HST5042F Theory and Method in Histories of Medicine, Health and Healing
  • HST5043S Writing and History
  • HST5044S Migrants, Diasporas and Minorities in the Modern World
  • HST5056S Themes in Everyday History
  • HST5060F History in Public Life
  • HST5061H Advanced Historical Methods and Approaches
  • HST5046F Materiality and Power
  • HST5063S Debates in the History of the Indian Ocean World
• Research Masters
• PhD

HST4063S Debates in the History of the Indian Ocean World

This course provides students with an advanced understanding of the debates within Indian Ocean World Studies. The debates will be framed by focusing on -- and comparing -- the Indian Ocean world along the East African and Southern African coast in the pre-colonial period. Students will engage critically with literature that explores the relationship of the coast to the hinterland, as well as histories of the land, migration and state formation.

• Convener: Dr N Shivji
• Course entry requirements: Acceptance for an honours programme.