Humanitarianism in Africa: A Critical History

Examines two centuries of foreign interventions in Africa in the name of humanitarian principles, from the abolition of the slave trade to the most recent Ebola crisis in West Africa. Explores humanitarianism and how it informs the understanding of poverty, race, and violence; and who gives and receives aid. Scrutinizes the prejudices about Africans embedded within salvation projects and how these campaigns have been part of the larger dynamics of power that have defined Africa’s position in the world before, during, and after the European colonization of the continent. Reflects upon the practical and morally ethical alternatives in a world still shaped by suffering and injustice.

Related Subjects

Offered Spring 2025

Not Offered This Term

Catalog Subject Faculty Level HASS Category
21H.001

How to Stage a Revolution

Staff Introductory HASS-H CI-H
21H.009

World History and Its Fault Lines Since 1800

Sana Aiyar
Hiromu Nagahara
Introductory HASS-H CI-H
21H.144 21G.087

Introduction to Russian Studies

Elizabeth A. Wood
Maria Khotimsky
Introductory HASS-H
21H.156 21G.045

Global Chinese Food: A Historical Overview

Not offered regularly; consult department
Staff Introductory HASS-H
21H.185 12.386 STS.031

Environment and History

Not offered regularly; consult department
Staff Introductory HASS-S CI-H
21H.229

The Black Radical Tradition in America

Not offered regularly; consult department
Craig Steven Wilder Intermediate HASS-H
21H.242 21G.322

Frenchness in and Era of Globalization

Not offered regularly; consult department
Catherine Clark Intermediate HASS-H
21H.253 21G.075

Global Chinese Migration, 1567- Present

Not offered regularly; consult department
Emma Teng Intermediate HASS-H
21H.267

Atlantic Slave Revolts

Marjoleine Kars Intermediate HASS-H
21H.268

Urban History in Africa

Kenda Mutongi Intermediate HASS-H
21H.281

MIT and Slavery: Research

Craig Steven Wilder Intermediate HASS-H CI-H
21H.282

MIT and Slavery: Publication

Not offered regularly; consult department
Craig Steven Wilder Intermediate HASS-H
21H.283

The Indigenous History of MIT

Not offered regularly; consult department
Staff Intermediate HASS-H
21H.285 STS.025

Making the Modern World: The Industrial Revolution in Global Perspective

Merritt Roe Smith Intermediate HASS-H
21H.357

South Asian Migrations

Sana Aiyar Seminar HASS-H
21H.361

Echoes of Slavery: Recovering the Histories of Enslaved People

Marjoleine Kars Seminar HASS-H
21H.363 WGS.330

Abortion: Global and Interdisciplinary Perspectives (NEW)

Seminar HASS-H
21H.365

Minorities and Majorities in the Middle East

Lerna Ekmekcioglu Seminar HASS-H
21H.383 U 21H.982 G

Technology and the Global Economy

Anne E. C. McCants Graduate
Seminar
HASS-S
21H.385 11.152

The Ghetto: From Venice to Harlem

Not offered regularly; consult department
Craig Steven Wilder Seminar HASS-S
21H.388 U 21H.988 G

Global Commodities, American Dreams

Megan A. Black Graduate
Seminar
HASS-H