Back to selection
77502-01 - Proseminar: Challenging Objects in Africa Before 1800 (3 CP)
| Semester | fall semester 2025 |
| Course frequency | Once only |
| Lecturers | Ingrid Anna Greenfield (ingridanna.greenfield@unibas.ch, Assessor) |
| Content | How do historians work with images and objects in the study of sub-Saharan Africa before modern European colonialism? What qualities and characteristics are deemed pertinent, what range of evidence is brought to bear? What can we ask of artifacts made hundreds of years ago? This course will introduce students to aspects of African expressive cultures, pre-1800, that have proved challenging to dominant Western modes of identifying, analyzing, and assigning value to historical artifacts. Throughout, we will situate local and regional artistic practices in the context of global networks of cultural and commercial exchange in the medieval and early modern world, taking an interdisciplinary approach to the history of encounter as we consider material products of Ife, the Kingdom of Benin, the Ethiopian empire, the Upper Guinea Coast, the Kongo kingdom, and more. We will explore the manufacture of objects through attention to materials and technological processes, we will interrogate European images and texts as primary sources for African history, and we will discuss disciplinary shifts, recent scholarship, and museum exhibitions that reject ahistorical attitudes and offer new approaches to artistic traditions indigenous to the African continent as well as those shaped by intercontinental exchange. |
| Bibliography | All texts will be provided as pdfs to students. |
| Admission requirements | Für Studierende des BSF Geschichte im Grundstudium mit abgeschlossenem Einführungskurs Geschichte. Teilnahme an der ersten Sitzung ist obligatorisch. Die Teilnehmer:innenzahl ist auf 25 beschränkt. Im Rahmen des Grundstudiums ist es erforderlich, in jeder Epoche ein Proseminar zu besuchen. In drei der vier Epochen müssen Proseminararbeiten verfasst werden. Diese sind an die besuchten Proseminare gebunden und müssen im Rahmen dieser Veranstaltungen angefertigt werden. Pro Epoche soll nur ein Proseminar besucht werden. Bei Überbelegung werden nur Personen zugelassen, die in der jeweiligen Epoche noch kein Proseminar besucht haben. |
| Language of instruction | English |
| Use of digital media | No specific media used |
| Interval | Weekday | Time | Room |
|---|---|---|---|
| wöchentlich | Tuesday | 14.15-16.00 | Departement Geschichte, Seminarraum 4 |
Dates
| Date | Time | Room |
|---|---|---|
| Tuesday 16.09.2025 | 14.15-16.00 | Departement Geschichte, Seminarraum 4 |
| Tuesday 23.09.2025 | 14.15-16.00 | Departement Geschichte, Seminarraum 4 |
| Tuesday 30.09.2025 | 14.15-16.00 | Departement Geschichte, Seminarraum 4 |
| Tuesday 07.10.2025 | 14.15-16.00 | Departement Geschichte, Seminarraum 4 |
| Tuesday 14.10.2025 | 14.15-16.00 | Departement Geschichte, Seminarraum 4 |
| Tuesday 21.10.2025 | 14.15-16.00 | Departement Geschichte, Seminarraum 4 |
| Tuesday 28.10.2025 | 14.15-16.00 | Departement Geschichte, Seminarraum 4 |
| Tuesday 04.11.2025 | 14.15-16.00 | Departement Geschichte, Seminarraum 4 |
| Tuesday 11.11.2025 | 14.15-16.00 | Departement Geschichte, Seminarraum 4 |
| Tuesday 18.11.2025 | 14.15-16.00 | Departement Geschichte, Seminarraum 4 |
| Tuesday 25.11.2025 | 14.15-16.00 | Departement Geschichte, Seminarraum 4 |
| Tuesday 02.12.2025 | 14.15-16.00 | Departement Geschichte, Seminarraum 4 |
| Tuesday 09.12.2025 | 14.15-16.00 | Departement Geschichte, Seminarraum 4 |
| Tuesday 16.12.2025 | 14.15-16.00 | Departement Geschichte, Seminarraum 4 |
| Modules |
Modul: Basis Frühe Neuzeit (Bachelor's degree subject: History) Modul: Basis Mittelalter (Bachelor's degree subject: History) |
| Assessment format | continuous assessment |
| Assessment registration/deregistration | Reg.: course registration; dereg.: not required |
| Repeat examination | no repeat examination |
| Scale | Pass / Fail |
| Repeated registration | no repetition |
| Responsible faculty | Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, studadmin-philhist@unibas.ch |
| Offered by | Departement Geschichte |