Explore the range of faculty engagement with world regions and global issues by browsing the Faculty Database System or by searching for particular keywords (major world area, country, research topic, etc).

While the Duke International website strives to provide a comprehensive listing of Duke faculty with international research interests, you may also find additional information by exploring school-specific faculty listings

John D French, Associate Professor and Director of Undergraduate Studies, History

Contact Info:

Office Location:	223 Carr Building
Office Phone:	(919) 684-2536
Email Address:

Education:

PhD	Yale University	1985
MA	University of Pittsburgh	1978
BA (Magna cum laude)	Amherst College	1975

Specialties:

Latin America
Caribbean, Brazil
19th and 20th Centuries
Gender
Politics
African diaspora
Transnational
Women

Research Interests:

Current projects: Since 1984, I have been co-coordinator of the Latin American Labor History Conference held in April of each year at Duke, and I have served since 2001 as Director of the Duke Center for Latin American and Caribbean Studies and since 2002 as Director of the Carolina and Duke Consortium in Latin American and Caribbean Studies. I also serve as Associate Editor for Latin America and the Caribbean for the journal Labor: Studies in Working Class History of the Americas, under its new editor Leon Fink (University of Illinois-Chicago).

An historian of modern Latin America with a specialization in Brazil, my most recent book entitled Drowning in Laws: Labor Law and Brazilian Political Culture was published in 2004. I will be on a residential at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars in AY 2005-2006 to finish a book on the origin of Brazilian president Luis Inacio Lula da Silva entitled "Building Movements in a World in Flux: Leadership, Consciousness, and Mobilization among Metalworkers in São Paulo, Brazil 1950-1980." I have active ongoing research projects dealing with labor and globalization, as well as on "The Potential of Diasporic Dialogue: The Intersection of Afro-North America and Afro-Latin America in the Twentieth Century."

Keywords:

Latin America • Brazil • WTO

Curriculum Vitae

Recent Publications   (More Publications)

1. J.D. French, Obama e o desafio pós-neoliberal [Obama and the Neo-Liberal Challenge], Teoria e Debate (São Paulo) no. 81 (April, 2009) [article.php] [PDF] [abs]
2. J.D. French, Understanding the Politics of Latin America’s Plural Lefts (Chávez/Lula): Social Democracy, Populism, and Convergence on the Path to a Post-Neoliberal World, Third World Quarterly, vol. 30 no. 2 (March, 2009), pp. 349-370 [01436590802681090]
3. J.D. French, Guest Commentary: The John Hope I Came to Know, The Chronicle (2009) [The-John.Hope.I.Came.To.Know-3694012.shtml]
4. J.D. French, Resenha de O Brasil de Lula: A Gestão da Esperança, de Gonzalo Arijón, Mundos do Trabalho, vol. 1 no. 1 (2009), pp. 293-6 [PDF]
5. J.D. French, Understanding the Politics of Latin America’s Plural Lefts (Chávez/Lula): Social Democracy, Populism, and Convergence on the Path to a Post-Neoliberal World, Working Paper #355 (2009), Kellogg Institute for International Studies at the University of Notre Dame (This a longer and more extended piece with three tables regarding the Forum de Sao Paulo, the main gathering of the Latin American left since 1990.) [PDF]

Recent Grant Support

• Awarded to support a spring 2001 speakers series “New Directions in Latin American History”, the Trent Foundation, 2001/07.      
• Grant for a Working Group on "North American Intellectuals' Engagement with Latin American Politics and Labor: A Research and Training Project Based upon the Archive of Robert Alexander", the Duke-UNC Program in Latin American Studies, 1996/07.      
• Grant for continuing research with Scott Littlehale on "Trade Union Power and Regional Integration: The Political Economy of Organized Labor Responses to North American 'Free Trade'", the North American Studies Program, Duke University, 1995/07.      
• Grant for a Working Group on "Labor, Free Trade, and Economic Integration in the Americas", the Duke-UNC Program in Latin American Studies, 1995/07.      
• Co-recipient of a grant to cover expenditures related to our two volume co-edited publication on Latin American labor history, the Center for International Studies, Duke University, 1994/07.      
• Recipient in Fall 1994 of a Course Enhancement Grant for History 75 "Third World and the West: The Spanish Conquest of Mexico", the Duke Comparative Area Studies Major, 1994/07.      
• Grant to support an August 25-27, 1994 international research conference on "Labor, Free Trade, and Economic Integration in the Americas: National Labor Union Responses to a Transnational World", Peter Lang, Vice Provost for Academic and International Affairs, 1994/07.      
• Grant for a Working Group on "Labor, Free Trade, and Economic Integration in the Americas", the Duke-UNC Program in Latin American Studies, 1994/07.      
• Co-recipient in Spring 1994 of a Course Enhancement Grant for History 170 "Brazilian Race Relations", the Duke Comparative Area Studies Major, 1993/07.      
• International Studies Grant for a research trip to Geneva, June 1-16, 1993, Josiah Charles Trent Memorial Foundation, 1993/07.      
• Mellon Travel Grant for a research trip to Venezuela, August 29-September 4, 1993, the Duke-UNC Program in Latin American Studies, 1993/07.      
• Grant for a Working Group on "Labor, Free Trade, and Economic Integration in the Americas", the Duke-UNC Program in Latin American Studies, 1993/07.      
• Grant-in-Aid, American Council of Learned Societies, 1991/07.      
• Faculty Development Grants, Florida International University, 1991/07.      
• Faculty Grant, Latin American and Caribbean Center, Florida International University, 1990/07.      
• Faculty Development Grants, Florida International University, 1990/07.      
• Faculty Development Grant, Florida International University, 1989/07.      
• Faculty Grant, Latin American and Caribbean Center, Florida International University, 1989/07.      
• Faculty Development Grants, Florida International University, 1988/07.      
• Summer Mini Semester A Research Appointment, Florida International University, 1988/07.      
• Faculty Grant, Latin American and Caribbean Center, Florida International University, 1988/07.      
• Field Research Grant for travel to Tampico, Mexico, Tinker Foundation, 1981/07.      
• Yale Council on Latin American Studies Grant for travel to São Paulo, Brazil, 1980/07.      

I have received major fellowships from: Fulbright-Hays (1981-1982, 2000), Inter-American Foundation (1981-83), Social Science Research Council (1981-83, 1991) the National Humanities Center (1995-96), and the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars (2005-2006). In addition, my external grants include: American Philosophical Society (1998), American Council of Learned Societies (1991), National Endowment for the Humanities (1998, 1991), National Historical Publications and Records Commission (1998-2000) and North-South Center (1994)