Jonathan E. Robins

Contact

jrobins@mtu.edu
906-487-3080

Associate Professor of History

PhD, University of Rochester, 2010
BA, St. Mary's College of Maryland, 2004

Biography

Jonathan Robins is an award-winning historian of commodities, environments, and politics. He has published on oils and fats, fiber crops and textile industries, food and consumption, economic development, and environmental and labor history broadly. His current research interests include waste and waste landscapes, technological transitions in natural and synthetic fibers, and agroforestry. He serves on the steering committee of the Commodities of Empire project and as global book review editor for Agricultural History.

For prospective graduate students:

I work with graduate students in the IHA, EEP, and Sustainable Communities programs. I welcome inquiries from applicants interested in the historical dimensions of industry, heritage, environments and environmental policy, and other related topics. Please carefully review the course descriptions and curricula for each program.

Links of Interest

Areas of Expertise

Commodity history
Global economic and business history
History of colonialism
Food history

Recent Publications

“Primary Commodities and Industrial Consumers: The Case of Palm Oil.” In William Clarence-Smith, Jonathan Curry-Machado, Jean Stubbs, and Jelmer Vos (eds), Oxford Handbook of Commodity History, 287-310. Oxford University Press, 2024.
"Cotton.” In Jeannie Whayne (ed.), Oxford Handbook of Agricultural History, 394-410. Oxford University Press, 2024.
"Picking Stories, Selling Chaga: How History Helped Make Chaga a Superfood." The Otter/La Loutre, September 2023
Oil Palm: a Global History. University of North Carolina Press, 2021. Winner of the 2022 AHA Bentley Prize for best book in world history and 2022 Agricultural History Society Wallace Award for best book in agricultural history outside the US.
"Shallow Roots: The Early Oil Palm Plantation Industry in Southeast Asia, 1848-1940." Journal of Southeast Asian Studies 51, no. 4 (2020)
"Humans and other pollinators in the oil palm plantation complex." Arcadia no. 8 (Spring 2021)
Cotton and Race across the Atlantic: Britain, Africa, and America, 1900-1920 (University of Rochester Press: Rochester, 2016) Read More

Recent Funding

Aluminum Critical Mineral Production via Landfill Mining: Environmental, Community, and Technical Feasibility for Integrated Multi-Material Resource Recovery, Department of Energy (co-PI with PI Paul Sanders and co-PI Tim Eisele, 2023-2026)
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.

Recent presentations

“Palm oil or palm wine? Commodities and anti-commodities in colonial West Africa,” Lausanne Advanced Seminar in Political Ecology, 2024.
"Making kapok a commodity: scientific and commercial categorization and commodity improvement under Dutch and British colonialism, 1850-1950," World Congress of Environmental History, 2024
“The Colonial Origins of the Palm Oil Industry," keynote address for "Palm Oil Pitfalls conference, 2024.
“Tree Crop Plantations as Re/Afforestation,” Agricultural History Society annual conference, 2023.
"Oil Palms at the End of Empire," Robinson Business History Conference, Portland State University, 2022

Research Projects

Landfill Mining: this DOE-funded project examines the possibilities for extracting aluminum and other materials from landfill sites.
Oil palm in the 20th century: this project builds on my recent book, Oil Palm: a Global History. It will explore USAID and other US government support for oil palm in Latin America and beyond, and compare successful models for oil palm development globally.
Chaga: history, culture, and commercialization of a foraged fungus
Forgotten Fibers: an exploration of natural fibers like abaca, kapok, henequen, and hemp that were vital in modern industry and warfare but swiftly abandoned after the advent of nylon, polyester, and other synthetic materials.
Swamp, trees, and peat soils: exploring small- and large-scale exploitation of wetland tree spaces and peatlands.

Courses

SS1500 Introduction to History
SS3501 Making History
SS2504 World History to 1500
SS2505 World History since 1500
SS3951 Topics in World History
SS4630 Advanced Research in Social Sciences
SS5550 Global Environmental History
SS5551 Global Industrial History
UN1025 Global Issues