Interests:

I am trained in African History but my research interests focus on the western Indian Ocean and the commerce that knits together the cultures of the region.  My dissertation, The Zanzibar Dhow Trade: An Informal Economy on the East African Coast, 1870-1964, (Boston University: 1996) is a study of the East African dhow trade during the colonial era.  I did field work for my dissertation in Zanzibar and on the Tanzanian mainland.  I have since done research in Yemen , Kenya, and Oman. 

Publications:

Books:

Trading Tastes: Commodity and Cultural Exchange  to 1750, co-authored with Jonathan Reynolds, Upper Saddle River, NJ, Prentice Hall, 2006.

Dhows and the Colonial Economy in Zanzibar, 1860-1970, James Currey and Ohio University Press, 2004.

Africa in World History, co-authored with Jonathan Reynolds of Northern Kentucky University, Upper Saddle River, NJ, Prentice Hall, 2004. (A second edition is in the works.)

Visit the Africa in World History website

Articles and Chapters:

“The Western Indian Ocean since 1750” in Peter Stearns et al., Oxford History of the Modern World, forthcoming.

“Introduction to the Indian Ocean World,” in Deborah Johnston, ed., Teaching the Indian Ocean, Princeton, NJ: The College Board, forthcoming.

“Oman and Zanzibar: The historical roots of a global community,” in Himanshu P. Ray and Edward A. Alpers, eds., Cross Currents and Community Networks: Encapsulating the History of the Indian Ocean World, forthcoming.

“Putting Africa in World History and Vice Versa,” World History Connected, 2:2 (2004).

“Coastal East Africa and the Western Indian Ocean Region: Long-Distance Trade, Empire, Migration, and Regional Unity, 1750-1970,” The History Teacher, 36:1(2002).

Chapters on the "Economic Impact of European Rule" and "East Africa" in Toyin Falola ed., African History and Culture, Volume 3: Colonial Africa, 1885-1939, Carolina Academic Press, 2002.

"Sailing from Lamu and back: Labor migration and the regional economy in colonial East Africa," Comparative Studies of South Asia, Africa, and the Middle East, XIX:2(1999).

"The Mtepe: regional trade and the late survival of sewn-ships in East African waters," International Journal of Nautical Archaeology, 27:1(1998).

Works in Progress:

World in Motion, co-authored with Jonathan Reynolds, Prentice Hall.