This seminar examines some of the key themes in African history from the sixteenth century to the present. Content in any given year depends on the instructor and also student interests. Students will engage with historiographical debates over topics such as legacies of the slave trade and slavery; the crisis of colonialism; experiences of mobility and migration; the trajectories of anti-colonial liberation movements; gender and women's struggles for autonomy; the impacts of environmental change; African responses to colonial "development"; the roots of postcolonial conflicts; and changing expressions of identity.

Other themes may include state formation and urbanization; labour, commercialization and "legitimate" trade; settler colonialism and segregation; sources and methods. Assignments will be geared towards professional development and include either a research paper based on primary sources or a historiographical paper.

The title description and course description for HIS1707H are being adjusted to better differentiate it from a new course being proposed concurrently, HIS1713H Methods and Sources in African History. The purpose of the proposed changes to HIS1707H is to ensure that students might clearly differentiate the course from Methods and Sources in African History.