UNIVERSITY OF BOTSWANA’S HISTORY STUDENT RESEARCH AND THE DEVELOPMENT OF A NEW GENERATION OF HISTORIANS IN THE NEW MILLENNIUM

Abstract

Since 1976 the Department of History at the University of Botswana (UB) has run a course that for a long time was unique in the Southern African region whereby final year undergraduate students conducted field research and produced dissertations. These were bound and kept in the UB’s library for consultation by local and international researchers. The quality of some of these essays was so good that they were revised and published in scholarly journals. This paper looks at brief biographies of two students who were in the course in the past five years, their preparation for the course, research topics, awards, and publication of their projects. We also indicate how they went on to attain MAs in History of Botswana at Trent University and later enrolled for PhDs at Calgary University in Canada.