Africa

Faculty:

• EDWARD A. ALPERS: Ph.D. University of London, 1966.
  Eastern Africa; African economic and social history; Africa and the Indian Ocean; Lusophone Africa; Women; Islam
  310-825-2347/4601, alpers@history.ucla.edu
• ANDREW APTER: Ph.D. Yale University, 1987.
  West Africa (Yoruba, Nigeria) and the African Diaspora (Haiti, Dominican Republic, Cuba); Religion and Ritual, Colonialism, Cultural Production (World History)
  310-825-3070/4601/3686, aapter@international.ucla.edu
• CHRISTOPHER EHRET: Ph.D. Northwestern University, 1968.
  Early Southern and Eastern Africa; Linguistics
  310-825-4093/4601, ehret@history.ucla.edu
• GHISLAINE LYDON: Ph.D. Michigan State University, 2000.
  nineteenth and twentieth century Western Africa (pre-colonial and colonial, francophone), family, finance and business history.
  310-825-4214, lydon@history.ucla.edu
• MERRICK POSNANSKY: Ph.D. Nottingham University, 1956. Emeritus.
  African Prehistory and Archaeology; Historical archaeology; Carribbean
  310-825-4601, merrick@history.ucla.edu
• WILLIAM H. WORGER: Ph.D. Yale University, 1982.
  Southern Africa, pre colonial to the present; Social and economic history of Africa; Law.
  310-825-1768/4601, worger@history.ucla.edu
  

History

African history has had a distinguished record at UCLA. This campus was one of the first universities in North America to establish an African Studies program in the 1950s. Its designation by the University of California system and the Federal government in the 1960s and since as a national center for teaching and research on Africa has acted as a magnet for attracting some of the best faculty and students available. With three tenured professors of African history, and a junior colleague who specializes in West African, UCLA can offer survey and specialist courses on all geographic areas of sub-Saharan Africa, including coverage of pre-colonial and colonial periods. Since 1957, 116 students have successfully completed dissertations in African history. Current enrollment in the program numbers eleven full-time students.

Graduate Excellence

The potential for scholarly excellence and the high quality of the research produced by UCLA’s graduates has long been recognized nationally. During the past decade, graduate students in African history have demonstrated great success in winning national awards, particularly Fulbright grants and scholarships from the Social Science Research Council. UCLA dissertations in African history have been published by Yale University Press, Cambridge University Press, Heinemann, Ohio University Press, Oxford University Press, University of California Press, University of North Carolina Press, University of Wisconsin Press, and Wesleyan University Press. The authors of these books have achieved considerable success in competition for the most prestigious honor in African Studies, the Herskovits Award, winning the prize once and occupying runner-up positions on three other occasions.

Future Prospects for Historians of Africa

 Informed reports suggest that there will be a continuing demand for historians of Africa during the next decade. According to data compiled by Jane I. Guyer, African Studies in the United States: A Perspective (Atlanta: African Studies Association Press, 1996, p. 29, Table 2), 255 dissertations were completed in African History in the United States during the decade 1986-1994. This rate of production (approximately 28 per year) has more or less sustained itself since these data were compiled. According to annual data collected by the American Historical Association for the period, in 2003-2004 there were 23 dissertations completed nationally in African History. What is especially encouraging is that the numbers of Ph.D.s produced annually has not kept up with the number of job listings for African History over the past few years. Thus, according to the AHA data, in 2003-2004, the year in which these 23 historians would have been on the job market, there were 25 junior faculty jobs listed in African History. Although last year’s market was not quite so robust, 21 African History positions were still listed (see especially Figure 3), about 5% of all jobs listed in the AHA Perspectives for that year. At the same time, the percentage of applicants per job has declined from a high of 50.3 per listing in 1996-1997 to 42 in 2001-2002 for a decline of 16.5%. In other words, over the past several years it has been a very good job market for historians of Africa. Although budget difficulties are likely to cause short (and perhaps longer) term problems in hiring, the fact that at least one third of Africanist faculty nationally will retire by the end of this decade means that there is an excellent chance that there will be jobs for students entering the program now and graduating as is the norm in about seven to eight years’ time. In short, there will be a considerable national demand for historians of Africa, even if the total number of academic positions nationwide does not increase.  More recent data can be found in Robert Townsend article, "History PhD Numbers Lowest in Almost a Decade as Job Listings Continue to Rise."

But demand for historians of Africa seems certain to grow even beyond the numbers needed to replace current faculty (see Figure 2 above). With national calls for courses to reflect to an ever greater extent the diverse heritage of the United States, and with growing interest in World History courses, there is going to be an ever greater need for faculty who can teach the history of non-Western cultures. Many of our students have competed successfully for positions that emphasize World History, African Diaspora, and other non-Western fields of specialization together with African History. Moreover, there is likely to be considerable demand for such specialists in the future as universities and colleges reconsider their teaching priorities.

Applications
Applications to enter the program from individuals interested in the professional study of African history are always welcome. Early expressions of interest are particularly encouraged and should be addressed to the faculty member whose interests seem to match most closely those of the applicant. Application materials must be completed on-line here.  In addition to the materials requested of all students applying to the UCLA graduate program in history (GRE scores, three letters of application, completed Applicant Profile Sheet, Statement of Purpose, and official transcripts), those applying to the African field must also provide a sample of written work (undergraduate or graduate paper, honors thesis etc.). This sample is not returnable.

Requirements for the Doctorate in African History

The doctoral program in African history at UCLA has four components—coursework, languages, written and oral examinations, and dissertation. Students entering with a BA degree will need to fulfill the requirements for an MA in History—no more than two years of coursework, and a four hour examination in African history—before proceeding to the doctorate. Students entering with an MA do not have to fulfill the same requirements, but in most cases their program of study will require the completion of at least one year of coursework in African history and the passing of the equivalent of the master’s examination [see below] before proceeding to the written and oral examinations for the doctorate. Students should complete the coursework and language requirements during their first six quarters of study at UCLA, and schedule their doctoral written and oral exams during their third year. The fourth year should be spent carrying out dissertation research overseas, and the fifth and subsequent years writing up the findings. The aim of any student’s doctoral studies should be the production of a publishable dissertation which contributes in an original fashion to historical knowledge.

Students should bear in mind that at UCLA during the past ten years the mean time to candidacy (i.e. the satisfaction of all requirements except the dissertation) for all graduate students in history was 4.01 years, and to the successful submission of the dissertation and award of the Ph.D, 8.47 years. These figures are largely consistent with those for students in most other disciplines in the Social Sciences and Humanities. However, the Graduate Division at UCLA, as at most other major research institutions where the time to degree is usually comparably lengthy, regards the average time spent to degree as excessive and seeks to encourage speedier completion of doctoral studies. The mechanism most often adopted, at UCLA and elsewhere, is to reduce and/or eliminate financial assistance in the later years of the program. Students in history are not eligible for any form of financial aid from the department after their seventh year as a registered student in the doctoral program (i.e. not counting up to six quarters of official leave of absence), though some university-wide grants are not subject to this limitation. Within the African history field, we encourage people to move at a faster pace, completing coursework and oral examinations within the first two to three years, going into the field in the third or fourth year, and then writing up in the fourth and/or fifth and subsequent years.

Therefore, students with considerable background in African history or African studies are encouraged to accelerate their program by applying for national grants such as Fulbright and SSRC at the beginning of their second year and if successful then undertaking research in the third year. If unsuccessful the first time around, students should then reapply for funding. Fulbright and SSRC do not look askance at people reapplying.

1. Coursework:
   Students entering the doctoral program with a BA only must obtain an MA at UCLA. The minimum standards for the MA degree as established by the Graduate Division, are:
   • One year in graduate standing at the University of California (including two terms at UCLA).
   • Nine graduate and upper division courses (of which at least six must be graduate courses).
   • B average required in all courses applied toward the master's degree.
   • Successful completion of a comprehensive written examination.

   For the award of the MA with African History as the major field, the History Department requires also that a minimum of six (rather than five) courses be at the graduate level, that only one course in the “500” series and none in the “300” series be counted, and first year students must enroll in the History 275 three-quarter sequence. This series of seminars aims to introduce students to key methodological and historiographical debates. On occasion it also provides a forum for the presentation of research papers and dissertation chapters. Students are also strongly recommended to enroll in African Studies 201, an inter-disciplinary seminar offered by the James S. Coleman African Studies Center each Fall. This course could substitute for a History 200/201 during the first quarter of study in the graduate program.

   Successful progress in the MA degree program is measured by a four-hour comprehensive exam which students entering with a BA should take in May of their second year of study. The examination, which is confined to the major field of study, attempts to assess the candidate’s ability to synthesize a broad body of knowledge in African history. Students preparing for the examination should be conversant with the historiography of the continent, especially with regard to changing interpretative paradigms, and to key debates about significant historical questions and various methodological approaches that often span the disciplines of African studies. Students can use the annotated African entries in the American Historical Association Guide to Historical Literature (1995 edition) as an introduction to historical writing about the history of the continent and its peoples. They should also discuss the format of the examination with relevant faculty members.

   Students entering the program with an MA do not have as many course requirements to meet, though the process of familiarization with the UCLA faculty will often take as much time as for most entering MA students. Students entering with an MA are evaluated by written examination at the end of their third quarter of study (i.e. in May) in order to determine whether or not they will be permitted to continue toward the doctorate.

   For the doctoral degree, Graduate Division requires only that a student be enrolled in graduate standing for a minimum of two years at the University of California (one of these years must have been spent at UCLA).

   All students must produce a substantial research paper based at least in part on primary sources as part of the requirements prior to taking the Ph.D. Qualifying Examination.

   Since full-time study requires the taking of a least 12 units per quarter, students in the MA/Ph.D. program will choose the balance of their courses from those subjects that they plan to offer as “fields” (a total of four including “Topics in African History” as the main field, and “Survey of African History”—which requires evidence of teaching ability—as a related field) for their oral exam, and in areas that develop their research expertise such as languages. In selecting fields, students should consider subjects that fit well with their major area of specialization, and that provide a solid teaching core for the future. Since the members of each student’s doctoral orals committee will be composed of faculty in the fields selected, students should ensure that they take courses from, and develop good working relationships with, relevant faculty members. Such fields can include subjects within history—e.g. South Asian History, Latin American History, African-American History, the History of Women (for a full listing of the fields available in the history department see the Guide to Graduate Study in History, pp.5-6)--as well as across disciplines—e.g. Anthropology, Linguistics, Political Science.

   In the evaluation of written work, the History Department interprets letter grades in the following manner: an “A” indicates excellent work toward the degree, an “A-“ indicates good progress but suggests that the written work is not as strong as it could be, a “B” suggests that the work is barely adequate and raises doubts about the advisability of continuing to the doctorate. “Cs” are rare and signify that the work is not of graduate quality. “Ds” are not given to graduate students. An “F” signifies complete failure.

   Students should complete all coursework requirements by the end of their sixth quarter in residence. They should also have selected a sponsor--i.e. dissertation supervisor--by the end of their seventh quarter of study if they entered with a BA, and by the end of the third quarter if they entered with an MA.

2. Languages
   Students in the master’s program must demonstrate expertise in at least one African language, and in the doctoral program at least two, one of which must be an African language, and the second a relevant European or African language. The UCLA Linguistics Department regularly schedules classes in Hausa, Swahili, and Zulu, and occasionally provides instruction in Amharic, Bambara, Twi, Wolof and Yoruba, while the Near Eastern Languages and Cultures Department offers an undergraduate major in Arabic. Arrangements can sometimes be made for instruction in additional languages so long as qualified teachers are available. Students can also take advantage of the intensive language training offered every summer at several of the Title VI African Studies campuses in the United States and by programs overseas. Competitive scholarships are made available, both by UCLA (through the African Studies Center) and the host institutions, to assist students to meet the costs of attending such programs.

   Relevant European languages besides French include Afrikaans (for Southern Africa), Dutch (for West and Southern), German (for West, Southern, and East), Italian (for Northeast), and Portuguese (for West, Southern, and East). Significant amounts of source material also exist in Danish, Norwegian, and Swedish. All of these languages are taught on a regular basis at UCLA.

   Students must have completed one of their language requirements (demonstrated by passing ETS or departmentally-administered exams in European languages, and UCLA internal assessment in African languages), no later than the end of their sixth quarter in residence and both before they can take their Ph.D. Qualifying Examination.

3. Doctoral Written and Oral Exams
   • Written examination

     Students must pass an eight-hour written exam designed to assess their knowledge of the broad parameters of African History and of specific debates within the field. This examination will be set by the chair of the candidate’s doctoral committee and the candidate’s performance will likely be discussed at the subsequent oral examination. Students should consult closely with their chair and with other relevant faculty members in order to fashion a program of reading that reflects the thematic and geographic emphases of their individual program.

     The written examination should be taken no later than the end of the ninth quarter of graduate study in the doctoral program, and preferably during the seventh quarter, i.e. toward the beginning of the Fall quarter of the third year. Students who enter the program with an MA in African Studies or in an Africa-related discipline, and have a clearly defined dissertation topic, may well be ready to schedule their examination earlier in the doctoral program.

   • Oral examination

     The oral examination should be taken within a period not exceeding six months from the passing of the written examination, and probably much sooner. Students prepare four “fields” (two in African history, two in other fields [one of which may be in a related discipline]) for the exam, usually through coursework and independent reading, and, prior to the exam, submit to and have approved by their dissertation advisor a dissertation prospectus. The prospectus (which can be written for credit as a History 596 or 597) must contain (i) a full statement of the dissertation topic; (ii) an historiographical discussion of the literature bearing on the topic; (iii) a statement of the methodology to be employed; and (iv) a summary of the sources sufficient to demonstrate the validity of the topic. The approved prospectus will be distributed to each member of the candidate’s committee and will form an integral part of the oral examination.
     

     The aim of the examination is to assess the extent and quality of the candidate’s broad knowledge in a range of fields within history and, if appropriate, in an associated discipline, and to determine readiness to carry out independent research, usually overseas, on a specialized topic. Candidates who intend to apply for national research fellowships at the beginning of their second year of study, and who succeed in securing funds, will need to complete the oral examination before the end of the Fall quarter of the third year of study. Most grants require that the recipient take up funds before the end of the calendar year in which they are awarded.

     In general, students should schedule their oral examination toward the beginning of their third year in the graduate program. According to History Department policies, the maximum period from graduate admission to the completion of the written and oral qualifying examinations should not exceed NINE quarters. If a student fails the oral exam s/he may retake it within a period not to exceed six months. Students who successfully pass the written and oral examinations advance to candidacy for the doctorate and are eligible for the award of the degree Candidate in Philosophy (C.Phil.).

4. Dissertation
   The dissertation, normally ranging between 300 and 500 pages in length, should be on a topic of historical significance and must demonstrate originality in choice of subject, theoretical concerns and methodological approach. It should show a thorough mastery of the relevant written and oral sources, demonstrate the author’s ability to carry out independent research, and communicate the results of this research in excellent literary form. All students should aim to write dissertations of publishable quality. The University of Chicago, A Manual of Style (14th edition, 1993), provides the definitive guide to the formal presentation of scholarly writing. There is generally no oral defense of the completed dissertation in the Department of History.

Advising

Each student who has not yet formed a Ph.D. committee must have a faculty advisor with whom s/he should keep in regular contact. Each entering student is assigned a faculty advisor by the department for the first quarter. Thereafter, the student selects an advisor, keeping in mind her/his particular research interests since the likelihood is that the faculty advisor will later chair the student’s dissertation committee (though not necessarily so since the choice of chair and members of the dissertation committee is the responsibility of the student). Since UCLA is a large and often anonymous institution where individuals can easily feel forgotten and unappreciated, students should take the initiative in seeking out people with whom they feel they can work best and maintain contact.

Financial Assistance

All applicants to the graduate program in history are considered for merit-based financial aid by faculty members in each field, with all final decisions made by the department’s Graduate Awards and Admissions Committee (GAAC). The committee has a very limited amount of departmentally-administered funds which it allocates in the form of four- and five-year recruitment fellowships that pay tuition fees plus a stipend, Teaching Assistantships (awarded only to continuing students and always included as part of recruitment packages), summer research grants, year-long research grants, and dissertation write-up grants. The exact nature of the grants and the amounts allocated are subject to change annually. The committee also forwards the names of the most promising applicants to the Graduate Division for consideration for awards given out in university-wide competition.  The department takes very seriously the issue of financial aid and tries as hard as possible to ensure that student needs are met. Each year the GAAC engages in an exhaustive reevaluation of every student in the graduate program and allocates funds and Teaching Assistantships on the basis of current academic performance. The procedures for this evaluation are detailed in the Guide to Graduate Study in History.

Most students will likely obtain some form of support for some part of their degree program, but this support is unlikely to meet all of their financial needs. During the past five years, approximately 80 percent of the officially registered graduate students in history received merit-based financial aid (much of it in the form of Teaching Assistantships). However, most students find that they have to work and/or take out loans in order to support their studies.

Students should familiarize themselves with the numerous, though always highly competitive, sources of funds available outside the history department. The James S. Coleman African Studies Center awards FLAS (Foreign Language Area Study) fellowships in annual competition to support study of African languages. Each fellowship provides a stipend (from the JSCASC) and fees (paid by the History Department) for the academic year. IN ORDER TO QUALIFY FOR A FLAS TITLE VI FELLOWSHIP, YOU MUST INDICATE THIS ON YOUR FINANCIAL AID APPLICATION (For more information click here) AND DESIGNATE THE LANGUAGE THAT YOU WISH TO STUDY (SEE THE LIST OF UCLA OFFERINGS ABOVE UNDER “2. LANGUAGES.” Information on the Coleman Center and the International Institute can be viewed here.

The most important national fellowships that support research in Africa are the Fulbright-Hays Foreign Area and Language Training fellowships administered by the Department of Education (DOE) and the Fulbright fellowships administered by the Institute of International Education (IIE), and the grants awarded by the Social Science Research Council (SSRC). The deadlines for application to these programs are usually in September, October or November of each year. Useful information about application procedures, previous awards, and increasingly the application forms themselves can be obtained from the websites of the DOE, IIE and SSRC: www.ed.gov, www.iie.org and www.ssrc.org. Awards that have a narrower thematic and/or geographic focus are offered annually by the American Overseas Research Centers (such as the West African Research Center in Dakar, Senegal, and the American Institute of Yemeni Studies in Sana’a, Yemen), the Belgian American Educational Foundation, the John D. and Catherine T. Mac Arthur Foundation, the National Science Foundation, the Wenner-Gren Foundation and numerous other organizations. Students working on lusophone Africa have often received support from the Fundação Calouste Gulbenkian in Lisbon, Portugal, as well. For details on these and other fellowships consult the UCLA Graduate Division’s website (which also includes information on internal and external grants in its GRAPES database. The Rockefeller Foundation provides support to African students studying in the United States who wish to undertake research in Africa. Two very useful websites that provide access to information resources on all of Africa (not related to grants but to research planning) are maintained by Stanford University and the University of Pennsylvania. Refer also to the American Historical Association’s important pamphlet, Grants, Fellowships, and Prizes of Interest to Historians (published annually and available in the reference section of Young Research Library).

For students at UCLA and elsewhere, the period when students return from research in the field and need uninterrupted time to write is also the period when financial assistance is most critical and funding sources are scarcest. SSRC fellowship awards include funds to support a six month write-up period after the research is completed, but most dissertations take at least a year and usually two or more to write. History students can apply for Teaching Assistantships through their seventh year of study but not beyond. Speedier completion of the comprehensive examinations means that students will have more years later in the program in which they will be eligible for departmental support. The history department through the GAAC awards a limited number (approximately 10 annually) of dissertation grants from its own funds. The Department requires that applicants for these funds demonstrate that they have also applied for national dissertation awards. The Graduate Division also awards a restricted number of highly competitive dissertation fellowships. Some outside agencies also offer write-up awards, such as the American Association of University Women, the Woodrow Wilson Foundation, and the Spencer Foundation (for topics on education). Information on most of these awards is available from the Graduate Division’s website.

Last updated August 18, 2008