COLIN A. PALMER
Personal Data:
Areas of Professional Interest: African American, African Diaspora, Colonial Latin America, the Caribbean.
Education:
University College of the West Indies 1964, B.A.
(UCWI-London) (Hons.)
University of Wisconsin 1966, M.A.
Madison, Wisconsin
University of Wisconsin 1970, Ph.D.
Madison, Wisconsin
Honors and Fellowship in Graduate Education:
Carnegie Foundation Fellowship
Ford Foundation Fellowship
Academic Employment:
Dodge Professor of History, Princeton University, 2000-.
Interim Director of African-American Studies, Princeton University, 2001-02.
Distinguished Professor of History, City University of New York Graduate School, 1994-2000.
William Rand Kenan Jr. Professor, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, 1900-1994.
Chairman, Department of History, University of North Carolina, 1986-1991.
Chairman, African and Afro-American Studies, University of North
Carolina at Chapel Hill, 1980-1988.
Professor of History, University of North Carolina, 1980-1994.
Associate Professor, Oakland University, 1975-1980.
Assistant Professor, Oakland University, 1969-1975.
Post-Doctoral Honors and Fellowships:
Distinguished Graduate, University of the West Indies, 1998.
Affiliated Scholar, The Stanford Humanities Center, 1992-1993.
Fellow, Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences, 1991-1992.
Fellow, National Humanities Center, 1989-1990.
Martin Luther King, Rosa Parks, and Caesar Chavez Visiting Professor, Oakland University and Wayne State University, 1989.
University of North Carolina, Tanner Award for distinguished undergraduate teaching, 1986.
Rockefeller Foundation Fellowship, 1980-1981.
Oakland University Summer Research Fellowship, 1970, 1976.
National Endowment for the Humanities Fellowship for Independent Study and Research, 1975-1976.
Selected Publications:
Books:
The Politics of Power: Cheddi Jagan, Great Britain, the United States, and the Battle for British Guiana, 1953-1964 , forthcoming
The Black Condition, edited with Howard Dodson, Schomburg Studies in the Black Experience, (East Lansing, Michigan State University Press, 2009)
Origins of African Americans, edited with Howard Dodson, Schomburg Studies in the Black Experience, (East Lansing, Michigan State University Press, 2008)
Cultural Life of African Americans, edited with Howard Dodson, Schomburg Studies in the Black Experience, (East Lansing, Michigan State University Press, 2008)
Ideology, Identity, and Assumptions, edited with Howard Dodson, Schomburg Studies in the Black Experience, (East Lansing, Michigan State University Press, 2007)
Eric Williams and the Making of the Modern Caribbean (University of North Carolina Press, 2006)
Encyclopedia of African American Culture and History (editor in chief), 6 volumes ,(Macmillan, 2006)
Schomburg Studies in the Black Experience(series editor) 22 volumes. (Ann Arbor, Proquest Press, October, 2005-
The First Passage: Africans in the Americas, 1502-1617
(Oxford University Press, 1995)
The Modern Caribbean, edited with Franklin Knight.
(University of North Carolina Press, 1989)
Slaves of the White God: Blacks in Mexico, 1570-1650
(Harvard University Press, 1976)
Human Cargoes: The British Slave Trade to Spanish America, 1700-1739
(University of Illinois Press, 1981)
Passageways: An Interpretive History of Black America, 1619-1863, Volume I
(Harcourt Brace Press, 1998)
Passageways: An Interpretive History of Black America, 1863-1965, Volume II
(Harcourt Brace Press, 1998)
The Education of Historians for the Twenty-first Century (with Philip Katz and Thomas Bender (Illinois, 2003).
The Worlds of Unfree Labor: From Indentured Servitude to Slavery
(ed) (Ashgate, Aldershot, England, 1998)
Other Works:
Topics in Black American Philanthropy since 1785
(CUNY Graduate School, 1998)
Topics in Black American Philanthropy: A Graduate Curriculum
(CUNY Graduate School, 1998)
Books in Press:
The Methodology of Black Studies, ed, (MSU Press, Summer, 2008)
Books in Progress:
The Making of a New Jamaica 1938-1962
The Methodology of African American History, (MSU Press, Spring 2009)
Articles and Book Chapters:
“Mexico y la diaspora africana: algunas consideraciones metodologicas” in Maria Elisa Velazquez and Ethel Correa eds. Poblaciones y culturas de origen africana en Mexico, Instituto Nacional de Antropologia e historia, (Mexico, 2005) 29-38.
“Constructing Africa: African American Writers before Emancipation,” in Jerry Bentley (ed.) Interactions: Trans regional Perspectives in World History (Hawaii, 2005)
New introduction to Eric Williams, Inward Hunger, The Education of a Prime Minister, (Markus Wiener Publishers,2006)
“Williams and Africa” in the Eric Williams Memorial Collection newsletter, Fall 2000.
“The First Passage, 1502-1619” in Robin D.G. Kelley and Earl Lewis, eds. To Make Our World Anew: A History of African Americans (New York, 2000), 3-50.
“Eric Williams and His Intellectual Legacy” in Heather Cateau and S.H.H. Carrington, eds. Capitalism and Slavery: Fifty Years Later (New York, 2000), 37-48.
“Afro-Latinos and the Bible: The Formative Years in Mexico, Brazil, Peru” in Vincent Wimbush, ed. African Americans and the Bible: Sacred Texts and Social Textures (New York, 2000), 179-192.
“The African Diaspora” in The Black Scholar Vol. 30, No. 3-4 (Fall-Winter, 2000), 56-59.
“Africa Through a Western Optic: Wonders of the African World” in Perspectives Vol. 38, No. 5 (May 2000), 52-54.
“Defining and Studying the African Diaspora” in Perspectives Vol. 36, No. 6 (September 1998),1-9.
“The Asiento” in Seymour Drescher and Stanley L. Engerman, eds. A Historical Guide to World Slavery (New York, 1998), 188-89.
“Africa in the Making of the Caribbean: The Formative Years” (The 1996 Elsa Goveia Memorial Lecture, Mona)
“From Africa to the Americas: Race and Ethnicity in Early Black Societies” in Journal of World History Vol. 6, No. 2 (1995), 223-236.
“Rethinking American Slavery” in Stephen Maizlish and Alusine Jollah, eds. The African Diaspora (Arlington, Texas, 1996), 73-99.
“Slavery and Race in the Americas: Another Look at an Old Issue” in Proceedings of the Kenneth B. Clark Colloquium Series Vol. I (CUNY, New York, 1996), 97-124.
“The British Caribbean” The Handbook of Latin American Studies No. 48, (Austin, 1986), 187-220.
“The British Caribbean” The Handbook of Latin American Studies No. 50, (Austin, 1990), 208-256.
“The human dimensions of the British Company trade the Americas, 1672-1739: Questions of African phenotype, age, gender, and health” in Conference Proceedings, The Peopling of the Americas (International Union for the Scientific Study of Population Vol. 1), (Vera Cruz, 1992), 161-182.
“The Early Black Diaspora in the Americas: The First Century after Columbus” OAH Magazine of History Vol. 5, No. 4 (Spring, 1991), 27-31/
“Slavery, Abolition and Emancipation in the New World” in Latin American Research Review Vol. xvii, No. 3 (1982), 276-283.
“Distant Neighbors: Teaching about the Caribbean” in Perspectives (The American Historical Association), (February, 1995), 1-9.
“The Slave Trade, African Slaves and the Demography of the Caribbean to 1750” in Franklin Knight, ed. General History of the Caribbean Vol. III (UNESCO, 1997), 9-44.
Introduction to the revised edition of Eric Williams’ Capitalism and Slavery
(UNC Press, 1994), XI-XXII.
“Africans in Hispanic America” in The Encyclopedia of Latin-American History and Culture Vol. 1, (New York, 1996), 21-23.
“African Slavery in Spanish America” in The Encyclopedia of Latin-American History and Culture Vol. 5 (New York, 1996), 131-134.
“African Slavery in the Caribbean” in Michael Conniff and Shiame Okumr, eds. African-American Civilization (St. Martins Press, New York, 1994), 71-88.
“The slave trade and its abolition in hemispheric perspective” in George Tyson and Arnold Highfield, eds. The Danish West Indian Slave Trade (St. Croix, 1994), 1-10.
“The Cruelest Commerce: The African Slave Trade” in National Geographic (September, 1992), 66-91.
“Slavery, race and Christianity in the Americas to 1800” in Florida Endowment for the Humanities Occasional Paper, 1992.
“A legacy of slavery” in David Andrews, ed. Africa’s Legacy in Mexico (The Smithsonian Institution, 1993), 16-23.
“Struggle and Survival in the Slave Communities of the Americas” in Ohio Media Spectrum (Summer, 1992).
“Identity, Race and Black Power in Independent Jamaica” in Colin Palmer and Franklin Knight, eds. The Modern Caribbean (University of North Carolina Press, 1989), 111-126.
“Afro-Mexican culture and Consciousness During the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries” in Joseph E. Harris, ed. Global Dimensions of the African Diaspora (Howard University Press, Washington, 1993), 125-136.
“Slavery and Societal Development in Latin America and the Caribbean” in Stephen Fortune, ed. Unbound and Unfree, Readings in the Origins and Evolution of Non-Western Civilizations (Kendall Hunt, 1987), 155-164.
“Popular Resistance in Latin America and the Caribbean” in Stephen Fortune, ed.
Unbound and Unfree, Readings in the Origins and Evolution of Non-Western Civilizations (Kendall Hunt, 1987), 143-154,
“The Company Trade to Spanish America, 1700-1739” in Paul Lovejoy, ed. Africans in Bondage (Madison, 1986), 27-42.
“Changing Interpretations of Slavery Since World War II” in Molefi Kete Asante and Abdulai S. Vandi, eds. Contemporary Black Thought: Alternative Analyses in Social and Behavioral Science (Beverly Hills, 1980), 233-242.
“Commentaries” (on Mexican Slavery) in E.D. Frost, M.S. Meyers, and J.Z. Vasquez, eds. El trabajo y los trabajadores en la historia de Mexico (Arizona, 1980), 183-186.
“The Treatment of Slaves as a Problem in Recent Latin American Historiography” in Storia Contemporanea (Turin, Italy).
“Religion and Magic in Mexican Slave Society, 1570-1650” in Eugene Genovese and Stanley Engerman, eds. Race and Slavery in the Western Hemisphere: Quantitative Studies (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1975), 311-328.
“The Slave Trade” in Rhoda Goldstein, ed. Black life and Culture (New York: Thomas Y. Crowell, 1972), 87-102.
Other Publications:
Reviews:
50 book reviews in: Journal of Social History
American Historical Review
The Americas
Hispanic American Historical
Review
Journal of Economic History
Journal of Interdisciplinary History
Journal of Southern History
Journal of Southwest Georgia History
Latin American Research Review
Luso-Brazilian Review
Reviews in American History
Slavery and Abolition
William and Mary Quarterly
Journal of World History
Participation at Professional Meetings and Public Presentations: (partial listing…not updated
Paper, “The Methodology of Black Studies,” Florida Conference on Black Studies, Orlando, Florida, May 1, 2003.
Lecture, “Rethinking the Teaching of Slavery” Livingston College, May, 2003
Consultant, The African Burial Ground Project, 2003 – 2005
Address, “Strategic Planning and Graduate Programs,” American Historical Association Annual Meeting, Washington 2004.
Address, “The American Historical Association and Graduate Education,” American Historical Association Annual Meeting, 2004.
Paper, “Eric Williams and the Antecolonial Struggle,” Conference on the “Colonial Imaginary,” University of Antwerp, 2003.
Chair, session on Politics and Nationalism in the African Diaspora, Conference of the Association of the Worldwide African Diaspora, Chicago, 2003.
Address, “Reconsidering Reconstruction,” New Jersey Teachers, Raritan Valley College, October, 2005.
Address, “The African Diaspora,” United Nations Security Conference, New York, 1994.
Paper, “Eric Williams and the Golden Handshake”, annual conference, Association of Caribbean Historians, Cartagena, 2005.
Chair, Two sessions at the annual conference of the Association of the World Wide African Diaspora, Brazil, 2005.
Keynote Speaker, “African American writers and Africa before Emancipation”, Conference on Interactions, Regional Studies, Global Processes, and Historical Analysis, Library of congress, 2001.
“Teaching Latin American History”, World History Conference, University of Texas, 1999.
Lecture, “Periodizing and Conceptualizing African American History”, Indiana University-Purdue University at Indianapolis, February, 1999.
“Periodizing African American History: New Questions”, Montclair State University, 1999.
“Defining the African Diaspora”, University of Pennsylvania, March, 2000.
Keynote Speaker ,“African Americans and Africa” at the “Bantu into Black” Conference, Howard University, September, 1999.
“African American Intellectuals and Africa” Conference on the Intellectual History of African Americans, Ohio State University, May, 1999.
Lecture, “Race and Class in Contemporary America” at SUNY Potsdam, October, 1998.
Paper read, “The African Diaspora” at the plenary session of the annual meeting of the American Historical Association, 1998.
Keynote Speaker, “Eric Williams and his intellectual legacy” at the conference on “Capitalism and Slavery” Trinidad, 1995.
Webb Lecture, “Rethinking American Slavery” at University of Texas, Arlington, 1994.
“Race and Slavery” Another Look at an Old Issue” North Carolina University, 1994.
“Reclaiming the Past: Another View of American Slavery” at the Conference on the African Diaspora, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, February, 1993.
The Twelfth Elsa Goveia Memorial Lecture, “Africa in the Making of the Early Caribbean” University of the West Indies, Mona, May, 1996.
Discussant, “Rethinking American Slavery”, Panel on Slavery in the Americas at the American Historical Association’s Annual Meeting, January 1998.
“Rethinking Graduate Education”, Association for the Study of African American Life and Culture, October, 1999.
“Recruiting Minority Students”, Annual Meeting of the Organization of American Historians, April, 2001.
Keynote Speaker, “Friends and Lovers: Marriage Patterns of African Slaves in Early Colonial Mexico”, World History Association, June 1993.
Keynote Speaker, “Defining the African Diaspora”, Conference on the African Diaspora, City University of New York, November, 1999.
Paper, “Black Nationalists and the Construction of Africa”, Conference on the African Diaspora, SUNY Binghampton, 1995.
Lecture, “Slavery in the Americas”, York College, CUNY, February, 1999.
Lecture, “The African Slave Trade”, York College, CUNY, February, 1998.
Lecture, “The Middle Passage”, Norfolk State University, October, 1999.
Lecture, “Africans in the Americas: The Sixteenth Century”, The University of Texas at El Paso, February, 1997.
Lecture, “Africans in Mexico”, Fresno State College, May 1992.
Lecture, “The African Diaspora in the Americas”, Smithsonian Institution, June 1998.
Lecture, “The Origins of African American Slaves”, UNESCO Conference on the Slave Trade, New York University, October, 1999.
Paper, “Eric Williams, Pan Africanism and Africa” at the conference on Eric Williams, Wellesley College, May 2000.
Paper, “Afro-Latinos and the Bible” at the conference on Blacks and the Bible, Union Theological Seminary, April 1999.
Paper, “Teaching the African Diaspora”, Association of Caribbean Studies, Cartgena, Columbia, 1998.
Paper read, Triangle Scholars of the African Diaspora monthly meeting, National Humanities Center, January 1994.
Paper read, Association of Caribbean Studies Annual conference, Senegal 1991: “Slave Resistance During the Middle Passage in the 18th Century.”
Paper read, “Identity and Race in the Post-Independence Caribbean”, Association of Caribbean Studies Annual Conference, Santo Domingo, Jamaica, 1990.
Paper read, “Rethinking the Encounter: New Perspectives on Conquest and Colonization 1460-1550”, University of Florida, 1988.
Participant, American Historical Association, Annual Conference, 1986, 1990 (chaired sessions).
Participant, Caribbean Historical Association Conference, Barbados, April 1984, Cuba, 1985, and Bahamas, 1986.
Moderator, Session on Labor Systems, Caribbean Historical Association Conference, Bahamas, 1986.
Discussant, Session on New Methodologies in Social History, Caribbean Historical Association Conference, Cuba, 1985.
Discussant and round table participant, SSRC Conference on Migration, New York, November, 1984.
Paper read, “The Black Presence in the Americas” Columbia Quintcentennial Planning Conference, Racine, Wisconsin, October 1984.
Discussant, UNESCO Conference on Cultural Contacts and Migration, Barbados, April 1984.
Discussant, Southern Historical Association Annual Meeting, Louisville, 1984, 1990.
Participant, South East Conference on Latin American History, Puerto Rico, March-April 1983.
Participant, Caribbean Historical Association Conference, Puerto Rico, 1983.
Participant, Association of Caribbean Studies, Annual Conference, Cuba, 1982.
Discussant, Southern Historical Association Annual Meeting. Louisville, November 1981.
Discussant, Association for the Study of Afro-American Life and History, Annual Meeting, October 1981.
Participant, Association of Caribbean Studies, Annual Conference, Haiti, July 1981.
Paper, “The Human Dimension of the British Slave Trade During the 18th Century”, Society for 18th Century Studies, Annual Meeting, Washington, D.C., April 1981.
Moderator and Coordinator, Conference on Paul Robeson, Wayne State University, Detroit, 1987.
Discussant, Fifth Conference of Mexican and American Historians, October 1977.
Keynote Speaker, Conference on Slavery, Race and Ethnicity, Oakland University, April 1975.
Moderator, Association for the Study of Afro-American Life and History annual meeting, October 1974.
Participant, Conference on Revolutionary Change, Oakland University, April 1974.
Discussant, “Religion and Magic in Mexican Slave Society, 1570-1650”, AHA Annual Meeting, December 1972. University of Rochester, March 1972.
Service:
Professional: (partial listing)
Member, Frederick Douglass Book Prize Committee, 2005
Member, Ruth Hamilton Simmons Fellowship Selection Committee, 2005.
Member, Amistad Commission, State of New Jersey, 2005 –
Chair, Scholarly Programs Committee, National Humanities Center, 2003 –
Member, Executive Board, Association for the Study of the World Wide African Diaspora, 2001 -
Co-Chair, National Humanities Center, Annual Giving Committee, 2000 – 2003
Member, Editorial Board, Slavery and Abolition, 2002 –
Chair, Lydia Cabrera Book Prize Committee, 2002-2003
Chair, American Historical Association’s Committee of Graduate Education, 2000- 2004.
Chair, American Historical Association’s Committee on the Atlantic History
Prize, 1998-2000.
Director of the Scholars-in-Residence Program, The Schomberg Center for
Research in Black Culture, 1997-.
Member, Board of Trustees, the National Humanities Centre, 1998-.
Member, J.W. Fulbright Selection Committee for Latin America and the Caribbean, 1994-1999.
Chair, J.W. Fulbright Selection Committee for Latin America and the Caribbean, 1997-1999.
Member, AHA Council, 1996-1999.
Member, Editorial Board, The Americas. 1989-.
Member, Educational Testing Services Committee on the Graduate Record Exam, 1992-1993.
Member, City University of New York’s Task Force on Minority Performance in the Schools, 1994-1997.
Member, American Historical Association’s Wesley Logan Prize Committee, 1994-1997.
Coordinator, Triangle Scholars of the African Diaspora, 1986-1993.
Associate Editor, The Encyclopedia of Slavery, 1997.
Member, Advisory Board, The Stanford Humanities Center, 1993-1999.
Member, World History Committee of the National Council for History Standards, 1992-1994.
Member, AHA Focus Group on World History, 1992.
Member, AHA Task Force on Liberal Learning and the History Major, 1990-1991.
Chair, Nominating Committee, American Historical Association, 1990-1991.
Nominating Committee, American Historical Association, 1988-1991.
Board of Editors, Plantation Society, 1987-1990.
Nominating Committee, Association of Caribbean Historians, 1986.
Contributing Editor, Handbook of Latin American Studies, Library of Congress, Washington, D.C., 1983-1988.
External Examiner, The University of the West Indies, Mona, St. Augustine, Cave Hill campuses, 1983-1990.
Member, Program Committee, American Historical Association, 1982-1983.
Coordinator, Triangle Scholars on the Africa/Afro-American Experiences, 1981-1983.
NEH Panels on the funding of Humanities Centers; Summer Stipends; Summer Seminars, etc., 1980-.
Reviewer for the NEH for a variety of programs including the Media Program, the Division of Public Programs, Museums and Historical Organization, Research, etc., 1980-.
External Referee Tenure Review Committee at several universities—Duke, University of Florida, University of Connecticut, University of Houston, etc.
University Service:
Princeton University
Acting Chair, Program in African and African American Studies, 2001-2002
Member, Graduate Studies Committee, 2003-04
Member, Interdepartmental Committee, Program in African American Studies, 2000-
Member, Planning Committee, Department of History, 2003-
Member, various review committees, Department of History 2000 -
Member, Combe Prize Committee, Department of History, 2002, 2003.
Graduate School of the City University of New York:
Member, President’s Advisory Committee, 1994-2000.
University Marshall, 1997-1999.
Member, History Program’s Admission Committee.
Member, Search Committee for Colonial American historian.
Chair, Search Committee for Director of the Institute for Research on the African Diaspora in the Americas.
Member, Committee for Admission to the Graduate Faculty.
Member, Curriculum Committee.
Member, Executive Committee, 1996-1997.
University of North Carolina:
Advisory Committee, Curriculum in African and Afro-American Studies, 1993-1994.
Member, Administrative Board of the Graduate School, 1993-1994.
Member, Advisory Board, Institute for the Arts and Humanities, 1993-1994.
Board of Directors, UNC Press, 1989-.
Chairman, Search Committee for Chairman of African and Afro-American Studies, 1988.
Ad hoc Committee on Student Affairs, 1986.
Ad hoc, Committee on Graduate and Professional Education, 1986.
Advisory Committee, Institute for Latin American Studies, 1984-1994.
Member, Subcommittee of the Chancellor’s Advisory Committee for the Selection of the New Secretary to the Faculty, 1984.
Member, Task Force on Minority Performance at UNC-CH, 1983-1984.
Chairperson, Carolina Minority Scholars (Postdoctoral) Committee, 1983.
Committee on Black Faculty, 1983.
Ad hoc Committee on University Priorities, 1983.
Steering Committee, Black Faculty and Staff Caucus, 1983.
Martin Luther King Scholarship Selection Committee, 1983.
Member, Faculty Council, 1983-1986.
Search Committee, Dean of the General College and the College of the Arts and Sciences, 1984.
Committee to review the program in International Studies, 1983.
Committee to review the Curriculum in Latin American Studies, 1983.
Chancellor’s Advisory Committee, 1983-1984.
Advisory Committee, Affirmative Action, 1983.
Advisory Committee, Bridge Program, 1983.
Advisory Committee, International Studies, 1983.
Established Lectures Committee, 1981-1983.
Search Committee, Department of Economics and the Curriculum in Afro-American Studies, 1981-1983.
Chairman, Advisory Committee, Curriculum in African and Afro-American Studies, 1980-1988.
Chairman, Curriculum in African and Afro-American Studies, 1980-1988.
Pogue Scholarship Selection Committee, 1980-1984.
Chair, Latin American Search Committee, 1993-1994.
Member, Graduate Studies Committee, 1993-1994.
Member, Minority Postdoctoral review Committee, 1993-1994.
Chairman, Department of History, 1986-1991.