John D French
| Title: | Professor |
| Office Location: | 223 Carr Building |
| Office Phone: | (919) 684-2536 |
| Email Address: | jdfrench@duke.edu |
Education
- PhD Yale University, 1985
- MA University of Pittsburgh, 1978
- BA (Magna cum laude) Amherst College, 1975
Research Interests
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 was on residential fellowships at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars (2005-06) and at the Kellogg Institute at Notre Dame (Spring 2007)to work on my book entitled "Lula's Politics of Cunning: From Trade Unionism to the Presidency in Brazil." I am also finishing on a book entitled "Globalizing Protest and Policy: Neo-Liberalism, Worker Rights, and the Rise of Alt-Global Politics" that reflects ongoing research labor and globalization. I have also organized an international research conference at Duke on 27-28 May 2008 on “Nurturing Hope, Deepening Democracy, and Combating Inequalities: An Assessment of Lula’s Presidency” with major funding from Duke and Brazilian sources.
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 served as Director of the Duke Center for Latin American and Caribbean Studies from 2001 to December 2005, and as Director of the Carolina and Duke Consortium in Latin American and Caribbean Studies 2002-05. 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).
Awards/Recognitions
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), the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars (2005-2006), and the Kellogg Institute for International Studies at the University of Notre Dame (Spring 2007). 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)
Awards, Honors, and Distinctions
- 2009 Dean's Award for Excellence in Mentoring, January, 2009
- Visiting Fellowship at the Helen Kellogg Institute for International Studies at the University of Notre Dame for Spring 2007, January-May 2007
- Visiting Fellowship, Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, AY 2005-2006
- Award "in acknowledgment of and with much gratitude for your contribution in helping to restore democracy in Chile", from Juan Gabriel Vald鳬 Permanent Representative of Chile to the United Nations, September, 2001
- Awarded a 12 month Fulbright-Hays Fellowship, January-December 2000
- Awarded the Latin American Studies Association Labor Section Award for Distinguished Scholarship, 2000
- Research grant, American Philosophical Society, May, 1999
- Awarded a Fulbright Teaching Fellowship for Brazil, Universidade Federal de Sergipe (declined), 1999
- Grant, National Historical Publications and Records Commission, May, 1998
- National Humanities Center Fellowship with funds from the Rockefeller Foundation for a project entitled: The Metalworkers of ABC, 1950-1980: Working Class Consciousness, Organization, and Ideology, 1995-1996
- Advanced Area Research Grant, Social Science Research Council, May, 1991
- Grant-in-Aid, American Council of Learned Societies, May, 1991
- Travel to Collections Grant, National Endowment for the Humanities, May, 1991
- Fellowship, Social Science Research Council, 1981-1983
- Fulbright-Hays Fellowship, 1981-1982
- Learning Fellowship on Social Change, Inter-American Foundation, 1981-1983
- Newberry Library Mini-Institute in the New Social History at Yale University, 1981
- First and Second Prizes, Book Collecting Contest, Friends of the Amherst College Library, 1974
- New York State Regents' Scholarship, declined, 1971
- Rotary Club of Brighton Award for Outstanding Achievement in Spanish, 1971
- HISTORY 170C.01, AFRO-BRAZIL CULTURE/HST
Synopsis
- Friedl Bdg 107, TuTh 11:40 AM-12:55 PM
- HISTORY 340S.01, COLONIAL/IMPERIAL AFRO-BRAZ
- Carr 135, Th 06:00 PM-08:30 PM
Recent Publications
Papers Published- 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 30:2 (March, 2009): 349-370. [01436590802681090]
- J.D. French, "Os Trabalhos Arquivísticos Voltado ao Mundo dos Trabalhadores: Avanços e Desafios em América Latina desde 1992" in José Antonio Marques & Inez Terezinha Stampa ed., O Mundo dos Trabalhadores e seus Arquivos (Arquivo Nacional/CUT, 2009), 83-101. [PDF]
- J.D. French, "Resenha de To Inherit the Earth: The Landless Movement and the Struggle for a New Brazil". Mundos do Trabalho :2 (2009): 282-285. [PDF]
- J.D. French. "Question and Answer on comments by Brazilian President Lula at the International Labor Organization regarding labor, the G-20, and global crisis." . August, August 24, 2009: 4. [PDF]
- J.D. French. "Obama e o desafio pós-neoliberal [Obama and the Neo-Liberal Challenge]." . April, April, 2009. [article.php] [PDF] [abs]