Richard Roberts is the Frances & Charles Field Professor in History and African History, and Director of the Center for African Studies at Stanford University. He is also affiliated with the Center for Comparative Studies in Race and Ethnicity (CCRSE). Roberts is one of the world's experts on the social and economic history of French West Africa and has been teaching African history to Stanford students since 1980.

His current research interest is the social history of everyday life during the 25 years surrounding French conquest of the interior of West Africa-especially how colonial conquest and the establishment of colonial rule ushered in changes in African societies and economies.

Some of his Courses include: Africa in the 20th Century, The End of Slavery in Africa and the Americas, Law in Colonial Africa, African Identities in a Changing World, and Core Colloquium on Precolonial African History. Some recent publications include: Two World of Cotton: French Colonialism and the Regional Economy of the French Soudan, 1800-1946 (Stanford, 1996), Cotton, Colonialism, and Social History in Sub-Saharan Africa, with Allen Isaacman (Heinemann, 1995), and Domestic Violence and the Law in Africa: Historical and Contemporary Perspectives (Ohio University Press, forthcoming) with Emily Burrill and Elizabeth Thornberry.

Roberts received his Ph.D. from the University of Toronto in 1978, his M.A. at Simon Fraser University in 1973, and his B.A. at the University of Wisonsin in 1970.