I was born in Oakland, CA, in 1966. As the oldest son of a Greek immigrant father and a first-generation Hispanic mother, I spent my entire life in the Bay Area until I moved to Philly for grad school in 1989. I came to Wheaton in 1995, right after finishing my doctorate at Penn. I like New England, but I love California and Philly, root for the 49ers and Eagles, and try to visit both places every chance I get.

Degrees

Ph.D., M.A., University of Pennsylvania
B.A., University of California at Berkeley

Main Interests

• History of the early Americas and Atlantic world (c. 1500-1815)
• Caribbean
• Slavery and abolition
• Brasil
• Latino/a history

Research Interests

I am finishing up my contribution to a two-volume US history textbook to be published by Oxford University Press. I am one of seven co-authors and the chief author of Chapters 1-5 of Volume 1. Our work should be published early in 2012.

Work on the textbook has forced me to set aside a book project called "Young Frontiers" which will examine the histories of islands in the Lesser Antilles that the French Empire ceded to the British Empire after the Seven Years' War to around 1815. The book will be heavily based on the writings and lives of Sir William Young, 1st Baronet, and his son Sir William Young, 2d Baronet, who served as Governor of Tobago from 1807 until his death in 1815. The project has taken me to Trinidad in 2006 and the UK in Summer 2007. I anticipate that it will require considerably more archival research, particularly in the UK.

This project is a fairly sharp departure from my last one. I published Forging America: Ironworkers, Adventurers, and the Industrious Revolution in 2004. You can learn more about it through Cornell University Press at www.cornellpress.cornell.edu. In Forging America, I argue that a culture of industriousness which emerged in colonial British North America and the US depended on slavery, race, and the coercion of working people as much as it did on the acceptance and practice of a religiously-inspired work ethic.

Teaching Interests

Fall 2011

First-Year Seminar: Mexamérica: An American Crossroads

This is a new course that focuses on Mexican immigration to the US and Mexican and Mexican Americans within the US.

Hist 398: CROSSROADS OF THE AMERICAS

This experimental course will focus on the history of economic, political, social, and cultural ties between the United States and the rest of the Americas, particularly the Caribbean and Latin America. Topics will include transnational migration and commerce, the evolution of national identities and popular cultures, environmental issues, and narcotrafficking. Majors in History, Political Science, International Relations, Hispanic Studies, and related disciplines are particularly encouraged to participate. Sophomores welcome with instructor's permission.

SPRING 2012

• Hist 219 ( to focus on Mexico, Argentina, and perhaps the Dominican Republic after nationalindependence)
• Hist 302

Other Interests

Brasilian music, without question.

I like nearly all popular genres except sertaneja. I have played them all on my show "Ritmo Atlântico," which I did on Wheaton College Radio WCCS, 96.5 FM from 2002 through 2005. I usually revive the show whenever I teach Mundo Brasileiro and give students the option of appearing on air with me. I have also done guest DJ appearances on WMBR 88.1 FM, MIT's station.

Football rivals Brasilian music and usually trumps it during football season. I adore the Patriots and the 49ers, now 6-1 as of today, November 1, 2011. I didn't appreciate them enough when they were great. Let that be a lesson to Pats' fans. These for us are the best of times.

I also enjoy:

• Birdwatching (and collecting birding field guides)
• Gardening (vegetables and wildflowers native to North America)
• Cooking
• Going home to California and to Philly

Publications

Student Projects

Melissa Carter ('11) is working on an honors thesis under my direction on the relationship between Puritan theology and experiential religion in New England between roughly 1630 and the Great Awakening.

Sidney Reavey ('10) took an independent study with me in Spring 2010 focused on development and politics in Latin America since World War II.

Evelyn Sanders ('08) took an independent study with me on migration from Latin America to the US in the 20th century while she is interning at Centro Presente in Cambridge.

Rachel Pierre ('08), a History major who has concentrated on study of the Caribbean, took an independent study with me in Fall 2007 on Caribbean history up to c. 1850, with a special focus on the Francophone Caribbean.

Courtney Allen ('07) wrote a terrific honors thesis under my direction on New France and French efforts to acculturate indigenous peoples.

Emily Edwards ('05) and Deanna Torres ('05), both independent majors in Latin American Studies, completed thesis projects--Emily on education and national identity in early 20th century Mexico, Deanna on politics, culture, and the construction of Puerto Rican identity in New York in the 1960s and 1970s. Emily presented her work at Wheaton's Academic Festival in April 2005.

Sean Britt (Wheaton 2000 and former Davis fellow)worked with me on the history of slavery in 19th century Nevis.