Table Of ContentMELINA A. PAPPADEMOS [email protected]
Home Office
166 Overbrook Road University of Connecticut
West Hartford, CT History Department, Wood Hall 202
06107 241 Glenbrook Road
860-561-0557 Storrs, CT 06269
860-486-3465
Employment__________________________________________________________________________
2012 History Department and Institute for African American Studies. Associate Professor with tenure.
University of Connecticut
2004 History Department and Institute for African American Studies. Assistant Professor (tenure track).
University of Connecticut
Education____________________________________________________________________________
2004 New York University. Doctor of Philosophy
History of the African Diaspora, Cuba, Caribbean, and Latin America (Advisor: Dr. Ada Ferrer)
1996 University of Illinois, Champaign-Urbana. Master of Arts (History of African American Culture)
1985 Cornell University. Bachelor of Science
Publications__________________________________________________________________________
Books
Black Political Activism and the Cuban Republic (Envisioning Cuba series, Louis A. Pérez, editor) (Chapel Hill: University
of North Carolina Press, 2011).
2012 Murdo J. Macleod Best Book Prize
Southern Historical Association-Latin American and Caribbean Section
2013 Gordon K. and Sybil Lewis Best Book Award (Honorable Mention)
Caribbean Studies Association
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Peer-Reviewed Articles and Book Chapters
"Political Changüí': Race, Political Culture, and Black Civic Activism in the Early Cuban Republic" [reprint]. In Rewriting
the African Diaspora in Latin America and the Caribbean: Beyond Disciplinary and National Boundaries, Robert
Adams Jr., ed. Routledge, Taylor and Francis Group (April 2013).
"'Political Changüí': Race, Political Culture, and Black Civic Activism in the Early Cuban Republic." In Rewriting the
African Diaspora in the Caribbean and Latin America, Special Issue of African and Black Diaspora: an International
Journal, Vol. 5, Issue 1 (January 2012): 65-84.
"From Cabildos to Continuadora Societies: Political Community in the Black Cuban Imaginary." Negritud: Revista de
Estudios Afrolatino-americanos, Vol. II, no. 2 (Winter 2009): 152-177.
"Romancing the Stone: Academe’s Illusive Template for African Diaspora Studies." In Issue: Journal of Opinion,
Conceptualizing the African Diaspora, 35, no. 2 (1996): 38-49.
Editorships
Senior Section Editor ("Cuba and Puerto Rico"), Dictionary of Caribbean and Afro-Latin American Biography
(DCALAB), Henry Louis Gates, Jr. and Franklin K. Knight, General Editors, Oxford University Press
(Forthcoming, 2014).
Melina Pappademos, Amy Chazkel, and Karen Sotiropoulos, eds. Haitian Lives, Global Perspectives. Radical History
Review, Vol. 2013, Num. 115 (January 2013).
Melina Pappademos, Michelle Stephens, and Erica Ball, eds. Reconceptualizations of the African Diaspora. Special Issue
of Radical History Review, 103 (January 2009).
2009 Best Special Issue (Honorable Mention)
Council of Editors of Learned Journals (CELJ)
Book Reviews
Lisa Yun, The Coolie Speaks: Chinese Indentured Laborers and African Slaves in Cuba (Philadelphia, PA: Temple
University Press, 2008), in Hispanic American Historical Review vol. 91, no. 4 (November 2011).
Manuel Barcia, The Great Slave Revolt of 1825: Cuba and the Fight for Freedom in Matanzas (Baton Rouge: Louisiana
State University Press. 2012), in The American Historical Review 118 (2013): 555-556.
Other Publications
"Raza, cultura política y activism cívico negro en los inicios de la República de Cuba." In Presencia de África en el
Caribe, las Antillas y Estado Unidos, Natasha Despotovic, ed. (February 2013). Published conference proceedings.
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"Presencia de África en el Caribe, las Antillas y Estados Unidos." July 2011, FUNGLODE-GFDD, Santo
Domingo, Dominican Republic.
"Editors' Introduction," co-authored with Sotiropoulos and Chazkel, Radical History Review, Vol. 2013, Num. 115
(January 2013): 1-9.
"Editors' Introduction," co-authored with Stephens and Ball, Radical History Review 103 (Winter 2009): 1-5.
"Race: Afro-Cubanía in the Republic, 1907 to 1959." In Cuba: People, History, and Culture, Alan West-Duran, Louis
A. Pérez, Nena Torres, César Salgado, et al editors, Scribner's/Gale Publishers, 2011.
"Afrocuba." In The Encyclopedia of the African Diaspora, Carol Boyce Davies, et al, editors, 338-346. Santa Barbara,
CA: ABC-CLIO, Inc, 2008.
"Juan Gualberto Gómez." In Encyclopedia of African-American Culture and History: The Black Experience in the Americas,
Colin Palmer, et al, editors, 924-925. Farmington Hills, MI: Macmillan Reference USA, 2006.
Work in Progress
"Between Blackness and the Body Politic: Race, Culture, Metaphor, and the Political Sphere in Cuba, 1933 to
1959." (book project).
Distinctions and Awards___________________________________________________________________
2012 University of Connecticut. Large Faculty Research Grant, Research Foundation.
2011-2012 University of Connecticut. Small Faculty Research Grant, Research Foundation.
2011-2012 National Academy of Sciences. Ford Foundation Postdoctoral Fellowship.
2011-2012 University of Connecticut. Humanities Institute Faculty Residential Fellow (declined).
2011 University of Connecticut. Small Faculty Research Grant, Research Foundation.
2007 University of Connecticut. Large Faculty Research Grant, Research Foundation.
2006 Harvard University. Non-Resident Fellow, W.E.B. Du Bois Institute for African
and African American Research.
2005 Wesleyan University. Center for the Humanities Research Fellowship.
2005 Harvard University. W.E.B. Du Bois Institute for African and African American
Sheila Biddle Research Fellow.
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2005 National Endowment for the Humanities. Summer Seminar for Researchers
and College Teachers. Seminar Title: "Visions of Freedom for the Americas:
José Martí and Eugenio María de Hostos in Nineteenth-Century New York City."
Eugenio María de Hostos College, CCNY, New York, NY.
2005 University of Connecticut. Research Foundation, Junior Faculty Summer Fellowship.
2003-2004 National Academy of Sciences. Ford Foundation Dissertation Fellowship.
2003-2004 New York University. Prize Teaching Fellow.
2003-2004 Marquette University. Arnold Mitchem Doctoral Fellow (declined).
2002-2003 New York University. Doris Quinn Fellowship.
2001-2002 United States Department of Education. Fulbright-Hays International Research
Fellowship (for research in Cuba).
2000-2001 New York University. Dean’s Dissertation Fellowship, Graduate School of Arts and Sciences.
1999-2000 New York University. Warren Dean Memorial Fellowship in Latin American History.
1999 National Academy of Sciences. Ford Foundation Fellowship for Research in Gender/Area
Studies.
1999 New York University. King Juan Carlos II Coca-Cola Travel Grant, New York University.
1997-1999 Rutgers University. Associate Fellow, Center for Historical Analysis, the Black Atlantic Project.
1997-1998 New York University. Margaret Brown Fellowship for Women.
1998 New York University. Graduate School of Arts and Sciences Predoctoral Fellowship.
1996-1997 New York University. Graduate School of Arts and Sciences Fellowship,
1996-1997 New York University. Center for Latin American/Caribbean Studies Research Fellowship.
1996 New York University. Warren Dean Memorial Fellowship in Latin American History.
1995 University of Illinois. Center for Latin American and Caribbean Studies Travel Research
Fellowship.
1996-2012 International History Honor Society. Phi Alpha Theta, Epsilon Chapter.
1995-2012 Honor Society. Phi Alpha Phi.
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1984-1985 Cornell University. Provost's Office, Cornell Tradition Fellow.
Public and Invited Lectures_____________________________________________________________
2013 Invited Lecture. "'Los fueros del hogar': Gender, Sex, and the Transgressions of Blackness in
Cuban Politics after the 1912 Race War." University of Connecticut Humanities Institute
Luncheon Lecture Series. UCONN, Storrs.
2013 Public Lecture. "Rethinking Black Politics after the Race War of 1912." Program in African
Diaspora Studies and Radical Dissent History Series, Marist College, Poughkeepsie, NY.
2012 Book Panel. Black Political Activism and the Cuban Republic (Envisioning Cuba) (2011). Institute for
African American Studies. University of Connecticut, Storrs.
2012 Public Lecture. "Black Civic Activism and Counter Narratives of Africa in the Early Cuban
Republic." Center for the Comparative Study of Race and Ethnicity, Connecticut College, New
London, CT.
2010 Public Lecture. "Black Clubs and Counter Narratives of Africa in the Early Cuban Republic."
Farmington Valley Chapter of the Links, Inc. Asylum Hill Congregational Church, Hartford,
CT.
2010 Keynote Speaker. "Women of Color and the Politics of Visibility." Annual Women of Color
Luncheon, sponsored by the UCONN Women’s Studies Program and Women’s Center.
University of Connecticut, Storrs.
2007 Public Lecture. "Patrons and Partisans: Black Club Activism after the Cuban Revolution of
1933." Institute for African American Studies. University of Connecticut, Storrs.
2006 Colloquium Speaker. "Race, Diaspora, and Cuban History." Center for the Humanities
Colloquium Series, 2005-2006. Wesleyan University, Middletown, Connecticut.
2006 Public Lecture. "Political Community and the Challenges of Diaspora in Republican Cuba,"
Center for Humanities Spring Lecture Series, 2006. Wesleyan University, Middletown,
Connecticut.
.
2005 Public Lecture. "Two Pillars of Black Cuban Activism." W. E. B. Du Bois Institute for African
and African American Research, Fall 2005 Colloquium Series, Harvard University.
1999 Invited Lecture. "Gender, Race, and Black Radicalism in History," Women’s Studies and
Africana Studies Programs, in honor of Women’s and African American History months.
Brooklyn College, Brooklyn, New York.
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1995 Public Lecture. "Race and Class in Two Afro Cuban Publications: El Boletín Oficial del Club
Atenas and La Revista Adelante," Brown Bag Lecture. University of Illinois, Urbana-Champagne.
Conference Participation_______________________________________________________________
2013 Panelist. "Rethinking Black Racial Politics in Cuba after the Partido Independiente de Color,"
"Refashioning Blackness: Contesting Racism in the Afro-Americas," Lozano Long Institute of
Latin American Studies (LLILAS) and the John L. Warfield Center for African and African
American Studies (WCAAAS) 2013 Symposium, University of Texas at Austin.
2012 Panelist. "Make it Plain, Make it Public: Thoughts on How to Finish, Shop, and Publish, your
Book," Workshop Session on Postdoctoral, Professional Advancement. "Reflecting Forward:
Diversifying the Academy to Meet Global Challenge," 2012 Conference of Ford Fellows,
Newport Beach, CA.
2012 Moderator. "Social Hygiene and Public Health in the Early Republic." Current Research in
Cuban Studies (History, Sociology, Humanities), Third Annual Workshop, New York University
Center for Latin American and Caribbean Studies/Caribbean Institute, New York, NY.
2011 Presenter. "Rethinking Black Racial Politics in Cuba after the Partido Independiente de Color." Panel
titled, "La guerrita del doce: The Impact of the Race War of 1912 in Cuba and Elsewhere in the
Spanish Caribbean." 27th Annual Symposium on African American Culture & Philosophy,
"Afro-Latin America: Rethinking Identity, Politics, and Culture," African American Studies and
Research Center and Latino and Latin American Studies program, Purdue University, West
Lafayette, Indiana.
2011 Discussant/Comment: "Neither Race, Men nor Tragic Mulatas: Afro-Puerto Ricans and the
Imperial Transition, 1898-1917." The Caribbean Epistemologies Seminar, fall 2011. Center for
the Humanities, City University of New York (CUNY), Graduate Center, New York.
2011 Presenter. "Political Changüí: Race and Culture in the Early Cuban Republic." International
Conference, "The African Presence in the Caribbean, the Antilles, and the USA." Fundación
Global Democracia y Desarrollo (FUNGLODE) Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic.
2011 Presenter. "Black Political Activism and the Cuban Republic." International Conference. Sephis
(South-South Exchange Programme for Research on the History of Development) Workshop:
"Equity, Justice, Development: People of African Descent in Latin America in Comparative
Perspective." Universidad de Cartagena, Cartagena, Colombia.
2011 Presenter. "Changüí Político: Political Culture and Black Civic Activism in the Early Cuban
Republic." Panel titled, "Creating Cuban: Reexamining Constructions of Race in the Cuban
Imagination." 125rd Annual Meeting of American Historical Association, Boston, MA.
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2009 Presenter. "From Cabildo to Continuadora Societies: Early Republican Community in the Black
Cuban Imaginary" Panel titled, "Cultural Politics and Nation-Building in the Americas."
African and African Diaspora Studies Workshop. Wesleyan University, Middletown, CT.
2009 Presenter. "Black Politics, Anti-discrimination, and Cuba’s Revolutionary Transition," Panel
titled, "Cuba, Independence, Revolution and the Effects of the Struggle for Change, 1898-1962,"
123rd Annual Meeting of the American Historical Association, New York, NY.
2008 Chair. Panel titled, "Literary and Visual Representation of the Passing Phenomenon." The
Institute or African American Studies Conference, "The Harlem Renaissance Revisited:
Politics, Arts, & Letters." The University of Connecticut, Storrs.
2008 Presenter. "Race and Political Culture in the New Cuban Republic." Panel titled, "History and
Civil Society." Bildner Center for Western Hemisphere Studies (Cuba Project) International
Symposium, "A Changing Cuba in a Changing World," City University of New York, Graduate
Center, New York City.
2008 Co-Chair and Comment. Mid-Atlantic Radical Historians Association Roundtable titled,
"Reconceptualizations of the African Diaspora." 122nd Annual Meeting of the American
Historical Association, Washington, D.C.
2007 Moderate/Comment. Panel titled, "Cartographies of Citizenship." Symposium on Cuba-USSR
and the post-Soviet Experience. University of Connecticut, Storrs.
2006 Presenter. "Color and Clients in Republican Cuba:" XXVI International Congress of the Latin
American Studies Association, San Juan, Puerto Rico.
2005 Presenter. "Race Men Patrons: Black Clubs and Politics in the Cuban Republic." 3rd Conference
of the Association for the Study of the Worldwide African Diaspora, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
2004 Presenter. "Lodged in the Storm: Black Clubs and the Politics of Patronage." New York City
Latin American History Workshop, Stony Brook-Manhattan, New York, NY.
2004 Presenter. "Too Long a Gathering Storm: Black Associations and Federations in the Early
Republican Era." Allen Morris Conference on the History of Florida and the Atlantic World,
Florida State University, Tallahassee, Florida.
2003 Presenter. "In Concert with all Modern Societies: Politics and Differences in Black Republican
Organizations," African Diaspora Forum, Department of History, New York University, New
York, NY.
2003 Chair. Race, Place, and Nation: The Making and Un-Making of Black Cuban Subjectivities. 5th
CRI Conference on Cuban and Cuban-American Studies, Florida International University,
Miami, Florida.
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2003 Presenter. "In Concert with all Modern Societies: Politics and Differences in Black Republican
Organizations," Fifth CRI Conference on Cuban and Cuban-American Studies, Florida
International University, Miami, Florida.
2003 Presenter. "Of Color and Country: Black Cuban Associational Life and Cultural Difference,
1912 to 1940." African Diaspora Forum, Department of History, New York University.
2003 Chair. "The Politics of Black Social Organization," XXIV International Congress of the Latin
American Studies Association, Dallas, Texas.
2003 Presenter. "Black Consciousness and Black Societies, 1900 to 1915," XXIV International
Congress of the Latin American Studies Association, Dallas, Texas.
1999 Presenter. American Historical Association Affiliated Societies Roundtable: Racism and
Radicalism in History." American Historical Association, Washington, D.C.
1998 Presenter. "Black Consciousness, Gender, and the Black Press in 1930's Cuba." Shaping
Scholarship Graduate Conference on the History of Women and Gender, New York
University.
Media __________________________________________________________________________
Interview. "Writing Cuba's Racial History." UCONN TODAY/CLAS TODAY, May 15, 2012.
http://today.uconn.edu/blog/2012/05/writing-cuba%E2%80%99s-racial-history/
Public Fora Organized____________________________________________________________________
2010 Organizer. "Interdisciplinary Workshop: African Diaspora and Transnationalism in
Latin America and the Caribbean." Principal sponsor: Center for Latin American and
Caribbean Studies (CLACS), Working Group Series. Co-sponsors: Humanities Institute,
Institute for African American Studies. Held at CLACS, University of Connecticut, Storrs.
2009 Organizer. Symposium, "New Perspectives on Race, Politics, and Cultural Agency."
Co-sponsors: IAAS, CLACS, Institute for Puerto Rican and Latino Studies, Department of
History, Department of Modern and Classical Languages, the Research Foundation. University
of Connecticut, Storrs.
2005 Organizer. Eric Galm, Assistant Professor, Trinity College. "The Yoruba Connection:
Intersections between Afro-Cuban and Afro-Brazilian Music and Culture."
2004 Organizer. Soy Cubano, Soy Popular!, Documentary on Cuban Timba music with Director Jennifer
Paz. Screening and Q & A.
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Referee______________________________________________________________________________
Asian Women
Black Women, Gender and Families
Canadian Journal of Latin American and Caribbean Studies
Caribbean Studies
InTensions Journal
Journal of Women's History
Latin American Research Review
Radical History Review
Social Science History
Wadabagei: A Journal of the Caribbean and its Diaspora
Editorial Boards_______________________________________________________________________
2012-present Co-Chair of the Editorial [board] Collective, Radical History Review (Duke University Press).
1998-present Member, Editorial [board] Collective, Radical History Review (Duke University Press).
Other Professional Experience___________________________________________________________
2010-2011 Faculty Coordinator, Gender and History Visiting Scholars Series. Sponsored by the College of
Liberal Arts and Sciences and the Department of History, University of Connecticut.
2010 Organizer, Interdisciplinary Workshop: African Diaspora and Transnationalism. University of
Connecticut. Principal sponsor: Center for Latin American and Caribbean Studies (CLACS),
Working Group Series. Co-sponsors: Humanities Institute, Institute for African American
Studies.
2004 Instructor. "Race and Politics in Cuba: Under the Colony and in the Republic,
Department of History," New York University.
2003 Instructor. "History of Modern Latin America and the Caribbean," Department of
History, New York University.
2003 Instructor. "Contemporary Latin America," Department of History, New York University.
2003 Facilitator. "Visual Culture in Havana," Faculty of Arts and Sciences NYU-Havana
Summer Study Abroad Program, New York University.
2002 Assistant to Program Director. Faculty of Arts of Sciences NYU-Havana
Summer Study Abroad Program, New York University.
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2001 Teaching Assistant. "World Cultures: Africa," Morse Academic Plan, New York
University.
2001 Teaching Assistant. "History of the Andes," Depart. of History, New York University.
2000 Teaching Assistant. "World Cultures: Latin American and the Caribbean," Morse
Academic Plan (Core Curriculum), New York University.
1999 Instructor. "History of Latin America and the Caribbean," New York University
1999 Participant. International Workshop at the Provincial Archive of Cienfuegos, Cuba.
Workshop title, "Race, Nation, and Citizenship, 1880-1920."
1999 Researcher, The American Experience series WGBH, Boston.
"Marcus Garvey: Look for me in the Whirlwind," Half-Nelson Productions.
Conducted research using the personal papers of Marcus Garvey. Prepared
compendiums for director and producer based on my research.
1998-1999 Managing Editor. Radical History Review. New York, NY.
Assist editors with layout, articles review, cover design; editing, manuscripts, and graphics;
maintain production schedule; organize and plan issues, administrative meetings for Steering and
Editorial Collective; manage office finances and promotion; supervise Editorial Assistant.
1996-1997 Graduate Research Assistant. Research conducted on Jazz history for Dr. Robin Kelley,
New York University.
1997 Graduate Research Assistant. Schomburg Center for Research and Black Culture.
Research conducted on late nineteenth and early twentieth-century Cuban history for
Dr. Ada Ferrer. Research for: Ada Ferrer, Insurgent Cuba: Race, Nation, and Revolution, 1868-1898,
University of North Carolina Press, (1999).
1996 Co-instructor and Teaching Assistant. "Afro-American Studies 100," Center for
Afro-American Studies and Research, University of Illinois, Urbana, Illinois.
Taught course section as well as collaborated on development of syllabus and reading list.
1995-1996 Graduate Advisor in the Bridge/Transition Program. University of Illinois, Urbana.
Monitored 38 African American and Latino freshmen and sophomores, to insure their
academic success and retention.
Professional Service____________________________________________________________________
2013 Award Committee. Southern Historical Association. 2013 Murdo J. Macleod Best Book Prize
Description:History of the African Diaspora, Cuba, Caribbean, and Latin America (Advisor: Dr.
Ada University Press, 2008), in Hispanic American Historical Review vol.
