Africa: Introduction
A small field, compared to both other areas of the Department and African Studies centers at a number of other universities, African History at the University of Chicago has proven highly productive for students with an interest in cross-disciplinary and comparative work. The main Africanist in the Department, Ralph Austen, works in a broad range of specialities which fit this profile. Students are expected to master large chronological fields of African history but are given considerable flexibility in their focus within these areas, including such issues as indigenous political and economic development, the slave trade, colonialism and postcolonialism. History students also have the opportunity to participate in Chicago's very lively African Studies Workshop where the majority of members are anthropologists. Chicago's Anthropology Department is one of the finest in the world and includes a number of specialists in Africa, including Jean and John Comaroff, whose work is very historically oriented. For other Africanists at the University see the web page of the Committee on African and African-American Studies.