...her current studies examine how the very category of Africa has been constructed historically as an object of knowledge and as a cultural-political entity subject to a long history of interventionist policies. That an Egyptian like herself might not always be considered an African is precisely part of this larger research question....
HANAN SABEA
When Hanan Sabea chose to study anthropology at the American University in Cairo, people immediately assumed that meant she would become an Egyptologist. “That’s part of the baggage, of course,” she said, laughingly reflecting on her early studies and growing up in Egypt. Hanan’s early studies centered on the political economies of developing countries in North Africa, an interest that later shifted to East Africa, and to Tanzania in particular. That early expertise contributes to her current studies that examine how the very category of Africa has been constructed historically as an object of knowledge and as a cultural-political entity subject to a long history of interventionist policies. That an Egyptian like herself might not always be considered an African is precisely part of this larger research question that directs her work and helps her develop course offerings. Hanan earned her Ph. D. from Johns Hopkins University in 2000. She is currently working on a book manuscript that explores the relationship between colonialism, the morality of governance, and memory. By focusing on sisal plantations in Tanzania, she examines how colonial labor and race structures shape the morality of state-subject relations in the post-colonies. In a second book project that derives from her dissertation, Hanan considers the role of international capital in shaping local polity and culture. This project deals with transnational corporations as agents in competition with states and nations in the construction of communities of allegiance.
Hanan arrived in Charlottesville for the fall 2000 semester with a joint appointment to serve both the Anthropology Department and the Carter G. Woodson Institute for African and African American Studies. The opportunity to have two constituencies, and thus a larger pool of students interested in her classes and research, made the offer by UVa “extremely attractive,” she said. In addition, the close working relationship she has found between the Anthropology Department and the Carter G. Woodson Institute has enhanced her research and teaching, culminating in a plan to submit a proposal for a federally funded Title VI Africa program at UVA.
Hoping to contribute towards expanding the teaching and research about Africa at UVA, Hanan has been involved in the newly established interdisciplinary consortium between UVA and four other southern African universities. For the past two summers, in
conjunction with a colleague from the Environmental Sciences Department, she offered a summer study abroad program in South Africa focusing on “Peoples, Cultures, and Environments in South Africa.” As an outcome of this program, further teaching and research collaboration with Witswatersrand University in South Africa are being explored, including summer field schools for socio-cultural anthropology and archaeology undergraduate students, support and supervision of undergraduate and graduate research, African language training, and faculty research.
Hanan’s courses have added to the diversity of the department’s course offerings. “Travel Accounts and Ethnographies of Africa,” which was offered to undergrads for the second time in the fall of 2002, begins with present-day accounts of Africa (where travel writing still has a tendency to focus on Pygmies, hippos and elephants). Her readings move back in time to the 17th- and 18th- century accounts of explorers and missionaries, whose descriptions helped create the political and geographical demarcations that were used in colonial and post-colonial periods, and that continue to define much that is Africa today. Last year, she developed “African Interlocutors” as a sequel to this course to examine in-depth the role of African assistants in shaping knowledge production about Africa. Her focus was those African interlocutors participating in travel and exploration, missionary work, anthropological research, and colonial administration. Since her appointment, Hanan has participated in the core graduate curriculum, by offering the seminar on “Current Theory in Anthropology” and she developed graduate courses dealing with “Labor, Capital and States in Africa,” “History Production and Collective Memory,” and “Migrants and Transnationals.” The undergraduate seminar “Comparative Plantations” examines plantations in both Africa and the Americas as social-cultural units, and draws students from anthropology, Latin American studies, and those interested in the American South. Students who opt for “Social Histories of Commodities” will come to learn that their professor’s personal passions also contribute to her scholarship. “In my commodities course we usually select three things to study that are turned from a regular plant into a commodity that we can’t live without. “ Sabea flashed her broad, characteristic smile and noted, “I do smoke, I love chocolate, and I can’t live without coffee.”
