Sub-Saharan Africa

 

Courses taught in the Department examine “power, poverty and wealth” in Sub-Saharan Africa from the era of the Atlantic slave trade to the present. Africa is also considered in geographically-wider ranging courses on colonialism and decolonisation as well as economic development. The economic, social and political-economic history of Africa, especially West Africa, is a major focus of thesis-supervision and research on Africa within the Department. Thesis topics, however, cover a wider range.

• Power, Poverty and Wealth in Africa, c.1700-1945 - G. Austin
• Power, Poverty and Wealth in Africa since 1945 - G. Austin

• Empires and Slavery in the Making of the Modern World Economy - G. Austin
• Colonialism, Decolonisation and the International System - G. Balachandran
• The Spread of Industrialisation in Asia, Africa and Latin America - G. Austin

• African Economic History Workshop - this international event was hosted here in May 2011 and will be again on 11-12 September 2012.

Currently about a dozen professors across the various disciplinary departments and interdisciplinary centres at the Graduate Institute are experts on one or another aspect of African Studies, with particular reference to a wide range of individual countries.  See a complete listing here.

Many of the international organisations based in Geneva have worked in Africa over many years, and some of them have archives accessible to scholars. Notable examples are the International Labour Organization and the League of Nations.