AFRICAN AMERICAN HISTORY

Areas of Teaching and Research Interests

The areas described below reflect my broadly defined research and teaching interests in the field of African American history.  I am prepared to work with students admitted into the History Graduate Program who share those interests.  However these areas are not exclusive.  With four specialists in African American history and faculty in allied fields including Asian American, Native American, Latino/Latina, early America, 19^th Century, 20^th Century, U.S. West, gender, urban, and social and cultural history, there are numerous opportunities for graduate students to craft research agendas that connect centuries, continents, regions, peoples and ideas in African American history.

The precise content of the filed of African American history including the required courses, and the coursework completed under my supervision, will be determined in consultation with individual graduate students.  You will se listed below a description of my primary research interests along with a brief list of the names of other department historians and their areas of related specialization.

African American Urban History

A comprehensive analysis of the history of African Americans in U.S. cities from the 18^th through 20^th Centuries.  The role of race, class, region and gender will be examined.  Particular attention is paid to the 20^th Century rural to urban migration in the development of a national African American political and civic identity and to the role of post-1970 gentrification and suburbanization in reshaping black urban life.

African Americans in the American West

This field comprises a broad overview of the social, political and cultural history of the population of African descent in the area presently bounded by North Dakota south to Texas and west to the Pacific Ocean including Alaska and Hawaii between the 17^th and 20^th Centuries.  The field particularly explores 19^th and 20^th Century African American urban history in the region and the interactions between African Americans and Asian Americans, Latinos and Native Americans. 

Related Faculty and Fields:

See Camp (19^th Century U.S.), Gamboa (Latino/Latina) Findlay (U.S. Western), Harmon (Native American)  Jung (Asian American), Nash (U.S. Western), Rorabaugh (19^th and 20^th Century U.S.), Rafael (Asian American), Smallwood (Atlantic World), Steptoe (African American)

The  Graduate Program, UW History Department Website

The UW Graduate School Home Page

The UW General Catalog