Mentoring Statement
I am interested in supervising honors theses research in Africana Studies that engages African and African diaspora history.
Background
Nathaniel Mathews is an associate professor of Africana Studies specializing in Oman and East Africa鈥檚 historical relations. In 2024, he published his first book, Zanzibar was a Country: Exile and Citizenship between East Africa and the Gulf, with University of California Press, which was named a best book of 2024 by History Today, and won the Monsoon Book Prize in History. He has published articles on topics such as the Zanzibar Revolution, Islam in East Africa, Islam and the abolition of slavery, and gender on the Swahili coast. He is currently working on a project on transnational migration and naturalization in colonial East Africa, drawing primarily on an archival dataset from the Zanzibar National Archives of naturalized Zanzibaris born in Oman.
Publications
- Zanzibar Was a Country: Exile and Citizenship Between East Africa and the Gulf. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2024.
- 鈥淭he Creation of a Collective Memory of the Zanzibar Revolution in Modern Oman.鈥 Monsoon 3.1 May 2025: 63鈥78.
- 鈥淎fro-Arab Marxism and the Zanzibar Revolution鈥 4 (2025).
Education
- PhD, Northwestern University
- MA, Georgetown University
- BA, Howard University, History and Anthropology
Research Interests
- African history
- Modern Zanzibar
- Islam on the Swahili coast
- History and memory
- History of slavery
Teaching Interests
- African history
- Indian Ocean studies
- Citizenship and belonging
- Health and healing
- Civil rights movement/Black politics
Awards
- 2025