We've launched a new site so please go to People & Research for current information on our faculty and staff.

Robert Korstad, Professor Emeritus of Public Policy and Bass Fellow  

Office Location: 112 Sanford Inst Bldg, Durham, NC 27708
Duke Box: 90245
Email Address: rkorstad@duke.edu
Web Page: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uc0u36LVGdg

Areas of Expertise

  • History
  • Leadership, Ethics, and Public Service
  • Social Policy
    • Economic Inequality and Poverty
    • Labor and Unions
    • Race/Ethnicity

Education:
Ph.D., University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, 1987

Research Categories: Social policy and US History

Research Description: Research: Social Policy from an historical perspective; labor; poverty; civil rights

Recent Publications   (More Publications)

  1. Korstad, R. "Curing my historical schizophrenia." Becoming Southern Writers: Essays in Honor of Charles Joyner. January, 2016: 135-138. [doi]
  2. Hall, JD; Korstad, R; Leloudis, J. "Cotton mill people: Work, community, and Protest in the Textile South, 1880-1940." The Intersection of Work and Family Life. February, 2013: 497-538.
  3. Korstad, RR; Leloudis, JL. To right these wrongs: The North Carolina Fund and the battle to end poverty and inequality in 1960s America. January, 2010. 1-436 pp. [available here]  [abs]
  4. Korstad, R. "Reformers to Radicals: The Appalachian Volunteers and the War on Poverty." JOURNAL OF SOUTHERN HISTORY 76.3 (2010): 789-790. [Gateway.cgi]
  5. Korstad, RR. "Civil Rights Unionism and the Black Freedom Struggle." American Communist History 8.2 (December, 2008): 255-258.

Highlight:
Robert Korstad is Emeritus Professor of Public Policy and History at Duke University. He received his B.A. and PhD from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

His research interests include twentieth century U. S. history, labor history, African American history, and contemporary social policy.

His publications include: Fragile Democracy: The Struggle Over Race and Voting Rights in North Carolina (coauthor, University of North Carolina Press, 2020); To Right These Wrongs: The North Carolina Fund and the Battle to End Poverty and Inequality in 1960s America (coauthor, University of North Carolina Press, 2010); Civil Rights Unionism: Tobacco Workers and the Struggle for Democracy in the Mid-Twentieth-Century South (University of North Carolina Press, 2003); Remembering Jim Crow: African Americans Talk About Life in the Segregated South (coeditor, The New Press, 2001); Like a Family: The Making of a Southern Cotton Mill World (coauthor, University of North Carolina Press, revised edition, 2000).

Bio/Profile
Robert Korstad is the Kevin D. Gorter Professor of Public Policy and History at Duke University. He received his B.A. and PhD from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

His research interests include twentieth century U. S. history, labor history, African American history, and contemporary social policy, and he is the co-director of a major documentary research project at Duke's Center for Documentary Studies, "Behind the Veil: Documenting African American Life in the Jim Crow South."

His publications include: To Right These Wrongs: The North Carolina Fund and the Battle to End Poverty and Inequality in 1960s America; (coauthor, University of North Carolina Press, 2010); Civil Rights Unionism: Tobacco Workers and the Struggle for Democracy in the Mid-Twentieth-Century South (University of North Carolina Press, 2003); Remembering Jim Crow: African Americans Talk About Life in the Segregated South (coeditor, The New Press, 2001); Like a Family: The Making of a Southern Cotton Mill World (coauthor, University of North Carolina Press, revised edition, 2000).

Current Ph.D. Students   (Former Students)

Robert Korstad