USA Africa Dialogue Series - Tim Searing

On 12/5/12 5:08 AM, "Mamadou Diouf" <md2573@columbia.edu> wrote:

>Dear Laura,
>
>This is terrible. I am still under the under the shock. The new reached
>me just when I arrived in Dakar. The very location I became friend with
>Jim and Trish. I met Jim in 1989 in New York; he invited me to
>Philadelphia where he was living at the time with his family. He was
>preparing to travel to Dakar as a Fulbright scholar. He accepted to team
>teach with me an introductory course on American colonial history. Our
>teaching couple was quite strange: two historians of Senegambia wrestling
>from different area of research. We taught each other and I believe
>develop a kind of comparative expertise (African history/American
>history). He became one of the most creative - always provocative
>historians of Africa, raising hard questions, putting together original
>archives and always engaging with the existing literature. He was
>committed and passionate. In addition to the scholarly network he
>participated in actively, he was also involved in the Dakar social and
>cultural scene, crossing class, race and education boundaries. He became
>famous as a "white American" saxophonist player performing with a group
>of "marginal musicians" playing an urban music from the poorest
>neighborhoods of downtown Dakar. A world I didn't myself mine. Strangely,
>he introduced me to that world. He was always keen to bridge the world he
>was coming from and the professional world he participated in. He
>succeeding doing it because he strong sense o humor. A vey destabilizing
>and refreshing irony.
>
>I kept I touch with him and Trish, meeting at least every year at the ASA
>annual meeting. I saw him every day in Philadelphia, two or three times.
>We agreed to meet next year on his way to the airport. I will miss him.
>
>Mamadou Diouf
>Columbia Universty
>
>Sent from my iPad
>
>On Dec 4, 2012, at 4:04 PM, "Laura Hostetler"
><hostetle@uic.edu<mailto:hostetle@uic.edu>> wrote:
>
>Dear Colleague,
>
>The Department of History is very sorry to have to inform you of the the
>sudden loss of our esteemed colleague, Jim Searing. A brief preliminary
>obituary is attached.
> If you would like to share a memory, read more about him, or or read
>memorials written by others please visit our
>website.<http://history.las.uic.edu/>
>
>Also we do hope that one of more of you in the field of African History
>might see to fit to write up an obituary that would more fully address
>his contributions to the field.
>
>I am sorry to have to share this very sad news with you.
>
>
>Sincerely,
>
>
>Laura Hostetler
>Professor and Chair
>Dept. of History (M/C 198)
>University of Illinois at Chicago
>913 University Hall
>Chicago, IL 60607-7109
>
>tel. 312-996-3141
>fax. 312-996-6377
>
>
>
><Searing final-LH .docx>

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