Karin A. Shapiro
| Title: | Visiting Associate Professor |
| Office Location: | 128 Carr Building |
| Office Phone: | (919) 684-2961 |
| Email Address: | kshapiro@duke.edu |
Education
- PhD Yale University, 1991
- M Phil Yale University, 1986
- MA Yale University, 1983
- Honours Degree in History University of Witwatersrand, 1981
- BA University of Witwatersrand, 1980
Research Interests
I study American social and southern history, as well as South African history. My interest in the political economy of race and coerced labor in both societies led to me to examine a dramatic Gilded Age labor rebellion in the Tennessee coalfields against the use of convict workers, the subject of my first book, A New South Rebellion. I am now engaged in two distinct projects. The first investigates post World-War II South African emigration to North America as a lens on both the politics of emigration and the social experience of globalization. To this end, I am exploring the evolution of emigration policy and its relationship to notions of citizenship and state formation, the ways in which passports and other kinds of travel documents formed part of the oppressive apparatus of the apartheid-era governments, and the movement of people and ideas from South Africa to the United States. The second project builds more directly on my earlier research into American social and labor history, reconstructing the habits of leadership and worldview developed by Richard Davis, the first black man to serve on the executive committee of the United Mine Workers of America. While much attention has been lavished on his writings in the union's journal, I intend to situate his actions and thoughts within the town of Rendville, Ohio, the community in which he lived and labored. By doing so, I hope to provide a more rounded and contextualized understanding of America’s black working-class leadership during the Gilded Age.
Awards/Recognitions
Social Science Research Institute Faculty Fellow (Duke University), W.E.B. Du Bois Institute Fellow (Harvard University), John Hope Franklin Humanities Institute Fellow (Duke University), Fulbright Fellowship, Albert J. Beveridge Grant, John F. Enders Grant (Yale University), Alexander Bouchet Prize (Yale University), Various Human Sciences Research Council Grants (South Africa), Ernest Oppenheimer Memorial Trust Fund Grant (South Africa).
Teaching (Fall 2009):
- HISTORY 115G.01, SOUTH AFRICAN HST 1870-PRESENT
Synopsis
- Carr 125, TuTh 01:15 PM-02:30 PM
- HISTORY 105S.04, AMERICAN IMMIGRATION
Synopsis
- Blackwell 119, M 02:50 PM-05:20 PM
- HISTORY 196S.08, SO. AFR. THROUGH BIO/AUTO BIO
Synopsis
Representative Publications
Books- A New South Rebellion: The Battle Against Convict Labor in the Tennessee Coalfields, 1871-1896 (University of North Carolina Press, 1998).
- Paul Weinberg and Karin A. Shapiro (Producers and Directors), Double Vision (May, 2005). A documentary on South African immigration to North Carolina
- Josh Brown, Belinda Bozzoli, Peter Delius, Patrick Manning, Karin A. Shapiro, and Jon Wiener, History from South Africa: Alternative Visions and Practices (Temple University Press, 1991).
- "William Riley: Southern Black Miners and Industrial Unionism in the Late 19th Century." The Human Tradition in American Labor History (2004).
- Philip Bonner and Karin Shapiro. ""Company Town, Company Estate: Pilgrim's Rest, 1910-1932." Journal of Southern African Studies 19:2 (June, 1993): 171-200.
- ""Doctors or Medical Aids - The Debate over the training of Black Medical Personnel for the Rural Black Population in South Africa in the 1920s and 1930s"." Journal of Southern African Studies 13:2 (January, 1987): 234-255.
- Review of Anthony Marx, "Making Race and Nation: A Comparison of the United States, South Africa and Brazil". Journal of American Ethnic History 19:2 (2000): 129-130.
- Review of Scott Reynolds Nelson, "Steel Drivin' Man - John Henry - The Untold Story of an American Legend". Labor: Studies in Working-Class History of the Americas forthcoming (2007).
- Review of George Fredrickson, "Black Liberation: A Comparative History of Black Ideologies in the United States and South Africa". (November, 1996).