Research Interests

Southern Africa, African Diaspora, African American and British Caribbean History

Background

Robert Trent Vinson received his Ph.D. in African History from Howard University. His research and teaching interests include South Africa, the African Diaspora and African American history. He is completing two book projects, a manuscript entitled The Americans are Coming!: The Dream of 'American Negro' Liberation in Segregationist South Africa (forthcoming, Ohio University Press) and Crossing the Water: African Americans and South Africa, 1890-1965, a documentary history co-edited with Robert Edgar and David Anthony (forthcoming, Ohio University Press). He has also published several articles, including in the Journal of African History, the African Studies Review, and the Journal of Southern African Studies.

 

Publications

Books in Progress

The Americans Are Coming!: Black Political Prophecies of ‘American Negro’ Liberation in Segregationist South Africa (Athens: Ohio University Press, forthcoming)

Crossing the Water: African Americans and South Africa, 1890-1965: A Documentary History (with David H. Anthony and Robert R. Edgar, Athens: Ohio University Press, forthcoming)

 

Journal Articles

“Zulus, African-Americans and the African Diaspora” with Robert R. Edgar, in Benedict Carton, John Laband and Jabulani Sithole ed. Being Zulu: Contesting Identities Past and Present (Pietermaritzburg: University of Kwa-Zulu Natal Press, 2008)

“Zulus Abroad: Cultural Representations and Educational Experiences of the Zulu in America, 1879-1945”, with Robert Edgar Journal of Southern African Studies 33, 1, (March 2007), 43-62.

“Sea Kaffirs: ‘American Negroes’ and the Gospel of Garveyism in Segregationist South Africa” Journal of African History 47, 2, (July 2006), 281-303.

Citizenship Over Race?: African Americans in American-South African Diplomacy, 1890-1925” Safundi: The Journal of South African and American Comparative Studies 15, (April 2004), 13-32; updated and revised in the electronic journal World History Connected, 1, 2, (January 2005)

“Poking Holes in the Sky: Professor James Thaele, American Negroes, and Modernity in 1920s Segregationist South Africa”, with Amanda D. Kemp, African Studies Review 44, 1, (April 2000) 141-159.

“The Law As Lawbreaker: The Promotion and Encouragement of the Atlantic Slave Trade by the New York Judiciary System, 1857-1862” Afro-Americans in New York Life and History 20, 2, (July 1996), 35-58.

Forthcoming Publications

“Poking Holes in the Sky: Professor James Thaele, American Negroes, and Modernity in 1920s Segregationist South Africa”, with Amanda D. Kemp in Tony Martin, ed. Global Garveyism (Dover: MA: The Majority Press, 2009) [reprint of African Studies Review article]

Book Reviews

Timothy J. Juckes, “Opposition in South Africa: The Political Leadership of Z.K. Matthews, Nelson Mandela and Steven Biko” The Negro History Bulletin, 60, 3, July-Sept. 1997

James Meriwether, “Proudly We Can Be Africans: African Americans and Africa, 1935-61” International Journal of African Historical Studies 35, 2-3, 2002

Francis Njubi Nesbitt, “Race Against Sanctions: African Americans Against Apartheid, 1946-1994” Journal of American History 92, 2 (September 2005)

Hakim Ali and Marika Sherwood, “Pan-African History: Political Figures from Africa and the Diaspora since 1787” H-South Africa Scholarly Discussion Network (2005)

Education

B.A. Psychology, 1992

University of Nevada-Las Vegas

M.A. History, 1995

Howard University

Ph.D. (with distinction), History, 2001

Howard University

Academic Positions

Visiting Assistant Professor, University of Virginia 2002

Assistant Professor, Washington Univ. in St. Louis 2002-07

Visiting Assistant Professor, College of William and Mary 2006-2007

Assistant Professor, College of William and Mary 2007-

Courses Taught

Africa

History of Africa before 1800

History of Africa since 1800

History of South Africa

Modern History of South Africa (since 1870)

Gender, Sexuality and Kinship in Africa

The Rise, Fall and Legacies of Apartheid

 

Transnational History

History of the African Diaspora

The Atlantic Slave Trade

History of Pan-Africanism

The Global Color Line: The U.S. Civil Rights Movement and the anti-Apartheid movement in South Africa

African Americans and Africa

African American History in Global Context: The Black International

 

African American History

African American History before 1865

African American History since 1865