Cotton and Race across the Atlantic: Britain, Africa, and America, 1900-1920 (University
of Rochester Press: Rochester, 2016) Read More
Robins, Jonathan. “Lancashire and the ‘Undeveloped Estates’: Cotton and development
in the British Empire,” Journal of British Studies 54, vol. 5 (2015) Read More
Robins, Jonathan. “ ‘A Common Brotherhood for their Mutual Benefit’: Sir Charles Macara
and the Internationalization of the Cotton Industry.” Enterprise and Society 16, vol.
4 (2015), 847-888. Read More
Robins, Jonathan. “Coercion and Resistance in the Colonial Market: Cotton in Britain’s
African Empire,” in Jonathan Curry-Machado (ed.), Global Histories, Imperial Commodities,
Local Interactions, pp. 100-120. London: Palgrave Macmillan, 2013. Read More
Jonathan E. Robins. 2012. “Slave Cocoa and Red Rubber: E.D. Morel and the Problem
of Ethical Consumption.” Comparative Studies in Society and History 54. 3: pp. 591-611.
Read More
Jonathan E. Robins. 2010. “Colonial Cuisine: Food in British Nigeria, 1900-1914.”
Cultural Studies – Critical Methodologies 10. 6: 457-466. Special issue on Food and
Power. Read More
Recent Funding
University of Connecticut Humanities Institute visiting fellow (2018-2019)
American Philosophical Society-British Academy Joint Fellow (2018)
Cornell College of Human Ecology Dean's Fellowship (2016)
Jackson Center for Teaching and Learning Blended Learning Grant: "Global Issues Blended
Learning Initiative" (January 2015), with Don LaFreniere.
Presentations
“Suited to Malaya? Origins of the Oil Palm Industry in Colonial Malaysia.” American
Society for Environmental History conference, Riverside, CA, March 2018.
“Nucleus Estates and Pioneer Mills: Models for Development in the Oil Palm Industry.”
African Studies Association conference, Chicago, November 2017.
“Capitalists, smallholders, and states on the oil palm frontier.” Global Commodity
Frontiers in Comparative Historical Context workshop, Commodities of Empire British
Academy Research Project (Institute of Latin American Studies, School of Advanced
Study, University of London and the Institute of the Americas, University College),
and the international ‘Commodity Frontiers’ research initiative (International Institute
of Social History, Amsterdam, the University of Ghent, and Harvard University). London,
December 2016.
“‘Easy-made drink’ and the struggle over oil palm trees in colonial Ghana, 1900-1939.”
African Studies Association conference, Washington DC, December 2016.
“Food comes First: Creating a ‘Food Problem’ in Colonial Ghana.” Midwest Conference
on British Studies, Ames, IA, September 2016.
“From Hogless Lard to Smart Balance: Vegetable fats and the transformation of global
food industries , 1850-1950.” American Society for Environmental History Conference,
Washington DC, April 2015.
Research Projects
My current project is a book tracing the history of the oil palm tree and the global
palm oil industry. Based on archival research on four continents, the book follows
the evolution of palm oil as a commodity, highlighting how environments, politics,
and culture shaped the ways people used oil palms. The book is under contract with
the University of North Carolina Press.
