Stanley L. Engerman, economic historian and John H. Munro Professor of Economics and professor of history at the University of Rochester, has been appointed one of 19 W. E. B. Du Bois Institute Fellows at Harvard University.
He will spend the 2006 spring semester in Cambridge with other scholars recognized for achievement in the fields of African and African-American studies. While there, Engerman will continue work on a book based on the Fleming Lectures he delivered on "Slavery, Emancipation, and Free Labor in World Perspectives" at Louisiana State University last April.
His studies of economic growth in the Americas, especially on the history of slavery, have been aacknowledged internationally. He has authored, co-authored, or co-edited more than 18 books and more than 100 articles. His analysis with Nobel Laureate Robert W. Fogel on the economic underpinnings of slavery, titled Time on the Cross: The Economics of American Negro Slavery (1974), remains a landmark study for its reinterpretation of data about the daily lives of slaves and the economics of the plantation. The book won the 1975 Bancroft Prize for American history.
Lisa Gregory, senior fellow and academic officer at the Du Bois Institute, said those selected are exemplary scholars in their field and represent an interdisciplinary group. This year's fellows join a list of Du Bois Institute alumni who include Evelyn Brooks Higginbotham, Victor S. Thomas Professor of History and of African and African-American Studies at Harvard. She earned her doctorate in history at the University of Rochester and has worked with Engerman.
The other fellows are Syl Cheney-Coker, previously a fellow of the Villa-Aurora Foundation for European-American Relations; Bobby Donaldson, assistant professor at the University of South Carolina; Ronald Ferreira, assistant professor at the University of Virginia; Maria Frias, professor at the University of Coruna in Spain; Arlette Frund, associate professor at the Université François Rabelais, Tours; Harry Garuba, associate professor at the Centre for African Studies; Lesley J. F. Green, senior lecturer at the University of Cape Town; James Hefner, president emeritus at Tennessee State University; James McCann, professor at Boston University; Samuel Ngayihembako, recteur at the Université Libre; Benjamin Ogunfolakan, lecturer at Obafemi Awolowo University; Melina Pappademos, assistant professor at the University of Connecticut; Claudine Raynaud, professor at the Université François Rabelais at Tours; Ronald Kent Richardson, associate professor at Boston University; Barbara Rodriguez, assistant professor at Tufts University; Wole Soyinka, playwright and poet; Phyllis Taoua, associate professor at the University of Arizona; and Noel Twagiramungu, a fellow at the International Center for Transitional Justice.
Engerman is past president of the Economic History Association and the Social Science History Association. A member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, he has been a member of many academic editorial and advisory boards. His forthcoming book, co-authored with Lance Davis, is titled Naval Blockades in Peace and War: An Economic History of Naval Blockades since 1750 to be published by Cambridge University Press.