简介

James Campbell’s research focuses on African American history and the wider history of the black Atlantic. He is particularly interested in the long history of interconnections and exchange between Africa and America, a history that began in the earliest days of the transatlantic slave trade and continues into our own time. In recent years, his research has also moved in the direction of so-called “public history.” He is intrigued by the ways in which societies tell stories about their pasts, not only in textbooks and academic monographs but also in historic sites, museums, memorials, movies, and political movements. His book publications include Songs of Zion: The African Methodist Episcopal Church in the United States and South Africa, Middle Passages: African American Journeys to Africa, 1787-2005, and Race, Nation, and Empire in American Life. He is currently the Edgar E. Robinson Professor of U.S. History. Professor Campbell received the Community and Justice Award, Rhode Island for Community and Justice, for work with Brown University’s Steering Committee on Slavery and Justice in 2007. His book Middle Passages: African American Journeys to Africa, 1787-2006 was a 2007 finalist for Pulitzer Prize in History, and the recipient of Columbia School of Journalism and Nieman Foundation’s Mark Lynton History Prize, and New England American Studies Association’s Lois P. Rudnik Prize.