Research and Teaching Interests:

Caribbean and Latin American; African Diaspora; Imperialism; Transnationalism; Nation-making; Popular culture; and Postcolonialism

Personal Statement:
Trained in the fields of African Diaspora and Latin American history, my research and writing thus far has concentrated on the postemancipation Caribbean.  I am particularly interested in recovering experiences, events and movements that highlight the region’s integral place within the history of the modern world.  Indicative is my forthcoming history of Trinidad during World War II, years in which the United States established military bases on the British territory.  Beyond showing how race, gender class complicated local encounters with US occupiers, this book reveals the colony to be an instructive scene for apprehending the how people across the globe have contended with the making of the American century.  I am currently pursuing research on the early history of petroleum in the Circum-Caribbean; it will culminate in a book-length project that combines labor, environmental and cultural history and will push Caribbean historiography “beyond the plantation.”

Representative Publications:

Caliban and the Yankees: Colonial Trinidad during the United States Occupation, University of North Carolina Press (March, 2007)

“At Sea: the Caribbean in Black Empire” Book Discussion, Small Axe 10, 19 (Spring, 2006)

“Moving History in the Aftermath: a review essay,” Small Axe 8 (Fall 2004), 214-221.

“The Race to Nation Across the (other) Americas: a review,” Estudios Interdisciplinarios de AmericaLatina y el Caribe 14 2 (December 2003)

“Mopsies and Manly Rivalries: nation, gender and sexuality in United States Occupied Trinidad,” Radical History Review 87 (Fall 2003); 79-97

“White Lies: Race and Sexuality in Occupied Trinidad,” Journal of Colonialism and Colonial History 2 (Spring, 2001), 21-52.