Timothy Cleaveland

Blurred image of the arch used as background for stylistic purposes.
Associate Professor

Timothy Cleaveland is the author of Becoming Walata: A History of Saharan Social Formation and Transformation. He has also published articles in the Journal of African History, the Canadian Journal of African Studies and the Journal of North African Studies. He is currently working on a history of race, gender and slavery in Islamic West Africa, and is particularly interested in how milk-kinship affected the social relations of slavery. This research was partially funded by the National Endowment for the Humanities.

Dr. Cleaveland teaches courses on the history of racism (HIST3760); comparative European imperialism (HIST8700); the comparative history of slavery (HIST4515 & HIST8700); the Senior Seminar (HIST4990); and world history since 1500 (HIST2702). He also teaches courses more specifically focused on Africa, which are cross-listed with African Studies (AFST). These include the introductory courses on African history before and after 1800 (HIST2501 & HIST2502), as well as thematic courses such as the history of Islam in Africa (HIST4520); the history of Africa in the World Wars (HIST3540); the history of East Africa since 1800 (HIST3512; and the history of the Sahara (HIST3545).

Education:

Ph.D., Northwestern University, Africa 1995

Articles Featuring Timothy Cleaveland

A series of African Studies (AFST) and AFST cross-listed courses offered during the Fall 2024 semester are listed below. We are particularly pleased to re-introduce AMHA 1001: Elementary Amharic I.

The courses are being…

A series of African Studies (AFST) and AFST cross-listed courses offered during the Spring 2024 semester are listed below. We are particularly pleased to introduce our newest addition – AFST 3950 Special Topics in African Studies: Introduction to Amharic…