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Kevin Dawson, Ph. D.

Kevin Dawson, Ph.D.
Ph.D. University of South Carolina, 2005

Department of History
North Benson Road
Fairfield University
Fairfield, CT 06824

CNS 319
kdawson@mail.fairfield.edu
(203) 254-4000 ext. 2383

Fields of Interest:

  • African American History.
  • The African Diaspora.
  • Maritime Slavery.
  • Comparative Slavery.
  • West Africa and the Slave Trade.
  • American History to 1880.

Courses Currently Taught:

  • HI 262: African American History, 1619-1865.
  • HI 291: Africans in the Americas.
  • HI 293: West Africa and the Making of the Atlantic World, 144-1800.
  • HI 397: A Social History of the American Civil War and Reconstruction.

Research:
I am currently revising my dissertation, "Enslaved Swimmers and Divers in the Atlantic World, 1444-1888," into a book manuscript.

I am also working on a project that considers how West African slaves conveyed hygienic practices to the Americas and how these activities shaped Western hygiene.

Selected Publications:

  • "Enslaved Swimmers and Divers in the Atlantic World," Journal of American History, forthcoming March 2006 - Received the Organization of American Historians 2005 Louis Pelzer Memorial Award.
  • "Enslaved Watermen in the Atlantic World, 1444-1888," Ph.D. diss. University of South Carolina - Offered a contract by several university of presses.
  • Book review. Judith A. Carney, Black Rice: The African Origins of Rice Cultivation in the Americas (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2001), in The Journal of African American History, forthcoming 2006.

Selected Conference Papers and Public Lectures

  • "A Culture of Cleanliness: West African Slaves" Hygienic Practices and their Influences on Western Hygiene," March 31-April 3, 2005, 2005 Organization of American Historians Annual Meeting. San Jose, CA.
  • "Enslaved Swimmers and Divers in the Atlantic World," November 3-6, 2004, 2004 Southern Historical Association Conference. Memphis, TN.
  • "A Culture of Cleanliness: Slaves" Impact on Western Hygienic Practices," September 17-18, 2004, University of North Carolina, Greensburg Atlantic World Conference. Greensburg, NC.
  •  "A Culture of Cleanliness: Slaves" Impact on Western Hygienic Practices," April 7, 2004, Graduate Student Day, University of South Carolina. Columbia, SC - Received "Third Place Graduate Student Day Award."
  • "Surfing in West Africa During the Slave-Trading Period: The Failure to Establish and Diffuse a Surf Culture," January 8-11, 2004, Hawaii International Conference on Arts and Humanities. Honolulu, HI.
  • "Enslaved Swimmers in the Atlantic World," March 29, 2003, Fifteenth Annual Graduate History Forum. University of North Carolina at Charlotte.
  • "Enslaved Swimmers in the Atlantic World," March 1, 2003, 2003 Annual Meeting of the South Carolina Historical Association. Columbia, South Carolina.

Awards, Grants, and Fellowships:

  • Organization of American Historians 2005 Louis Pelzer Memorial Award for "Enslaved Swimmers and Divers in the Atlantic World."
  • Ford Doctorial Dissertation Fellowship for Minorities (2004-2005).
  • Paul Cuffe Memorial Fellowship - Frank C. Munson Institute of American Maritime Studies (2004).
  • One-Month Fletcher Jones Foundation Fellow - Huntington Library (2004).
  • Fellowship in Southern Studies - Institute for Southern Studies, University of South Carolina (2003).