The Lunchtime Time Machine popular undergraduates series welcomes Dr. Timothy Cleaveland for this month's talk. Cleaveland specializes in the history of Islamic West Africa, and has done research in Mauritania, Mali, Senegal, Morocco, France and Illinois. He is particularly interested in the history of slavery, race and gender in West Africa, as well as the trans-Saharan slave trade. The Saharan and North African elite historically used racism to justify slavery in ways similar to those used in the United States, and this began at least 700 years before the Atlantic slave trade.

Cleaveland is the author of "Becoming Walata: A History of Saharan Social Formation and Transformation". He has also published articles in the Journal of African History, the Canadian Journal of African Studies and the Journal of North African Studies.

Free Admission. Free Pizza.