Nathaniel Mathews

Associate Professor

Africana Studies

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’s 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.
“The Creation of a Collective Memory of the Zanzibar Revolution in Modern Oman.” Monsoon 3.1 May 2025: 63–78.
“Afro-Arab Marxism and the Zanzibar Revolution” 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

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