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
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.
Research Projects
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.
Swamp, trees, and peat soils: a new project examining small- and large-scale exploitation
of wetland tree spaces and peatlands.
