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
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
Scheduled: “Transnational business encounters in the twentieth century: informal company
networks, cartels and business interest associations compared.” World Economic History
Conference, Economic History Association and International Economic History Association,
Boston, July-August 2018.
Scheduled: “Suited to Malaya? Origins of the Oil Palm Industry in Colonial Malaysia.”
American Society for Environmental History conference, Riverside, CA, March 2018.
Scheduled: “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
I am current researching a book on the global history of the oil palm tree and the
palm oil industry. Based on archival research on four continents, the book will trace
the origins and evolution of the oil palm industry, highlighting the ways in which
technology, markets and state power reshaped landscapes, altered foodways, and transformed
the oil palm tree itself.
