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MMatthew S. Hopperatthew S. Hopper

Assistant Professor
African History; World History; Modern Middle East
E-mail: mshopper@calpoly.edu
Office: Bldg. 47, Room 25F
Phone: (805)756-2641

EDUCATION

  • Ph.D. History, UCLA (2006)

  • M.A. African Studies, UCLA (2000)

  • M.A. History, Temple (1998)

RESEARCH INTERESTS

My research interests include world history and the history of east Africa, eastern Arabia and the Gulf in the 19th and 20th centuries.  Specifically, my research focuses on the history of African diaspora communities in the Middle East and the Western Indian Ocean.  I am currently revising a book manuscript titled, The African Presence in Arabia: Slavery, the World Economy, and the African Diaspora in Eastern Arabia, 1840-1940.

AWARDS, HONORS & PROFESSIONAL ACTIVITIES

  • Social Science Research Council (SSRC) Book Fellowship, 2007-08

  • UCLA Charles E. Young Award (2006)

  • UCLA Center for 17th and 18th Century Studies, Clark Library Fellowship (2005)

  • SSRC International Dissertation Fellowship, Zanzibar, Oman, UK (2004-05)

  • Fulbright-Hays Doctoral Dissertation Research Fellowship, Oman, UAE, Bahrain, UK (2004-05)

  • SSRC International Pre-Dissertation Fellowship, Yemen, Oman (2001-02)

  • American Institute for Yemeni Studies Fellow, Sana’a, Yemen (2001)

  • Library of Congress, Manuscripts Division, Junior Fellow (1997)

SELECTED PUBLICATIONS

  • “Parler en son nom? Comprendre les témoignages d’esclaves africains originaires de l’océan Indien (1850-1930)” [“Speaking for Themselves? Understanding African Freed Slave Testimonies from the Western Indian Ocean,1850-1930”],co-authored with Edward A. Alpers,
    Annales: Histoire, Sciences Sociales 63, no. 3 (juillet-août 2008): 799-828.

  • “Imperialism and the Dilemma of Slavery in Eastern Arabia and the Gulf, 1873-1939,” Itinerario: International Journal on the History of European Expansion and Global Interaction 30, no. 3 (2006): 76-94.

  • “Slave Trade: The Middle East, North Africa, and Central Asia,” in Peter N. Stearns (ed.), Encyclopedia of the Modern World, Vol. 7 (Oxford University Press, 2008), 32-35.

  • “Jackie Robinson” in Gary L. Anderson and Kathryn G. Herr (eds.), Encyclopedia of Activism and Social Justice (Sage, 2007).

  • “The United States and the Invention of the Congo: American Interest in Creating and Maintaining the Congo Free State, 1876-1908.” M.A. Thesis, Temple University, 1998.

  • “Review: Adam Hochschild , King Leopold’s Ghost; A Story of Greed Terror, and heroism in Colonial Africa,” Ufahamu 25, no. 3 (Fall, 1997).

SELECTED PRESENTATIONS

  • “Debt and Slavery Among Arabian Gulf Pearl Divers,” presentation to Debt and Slavery: The History of a Process of Enslavement, Indian Ocean World Center, McGill University, Montréal, Quebec, May 7-9, 2009.

  • “Africans in the Arabian Gulf,” presentation to The Gulf in Modern Times: People, Ports and History, Dr. Sultan Al-Qassimi Centre for Gulf Studies, Sharjah, United Arab Emirates (co-sponsored by Columbia University, Gulf/2000 Project, American University of Sharjah), March 17-19, 2009.

  • “The African Presence in Eastern Arabia: Globalization and Diaspora in the Age of Empire,” presentation to Africa & The Gulf: The Africa-Arab Gulf Relationships, New York University Africa House, NYU Abu Dhabi Institute, and Emirates Centre for Strategic Studies and Research International Conference, Abu Dhabi, March 3-4, 2009.

  • “‘Slaves of One Master’:  Globalization and the African Diaspora in Arabia in the Age of Empire,” presentation to Slavery and the Slave Trades in the Indian Ocean and Arab Worlds: Global Connections and Disconnections, Gilder Lehrman Center’s 10th Annual International Conference, Yale University, November 7-8, 2008.

  • “Ambiguous Freedom: Antislavery and Paradoxes of Liberation in the Western Indian Ocean,” presentation to Liberated Africans as Human Legacy of Abolition: An International Workshop to Mark the Bicentennial of British and American Abolitions of the Slave Trade, University of California, Berkeley, CA, May 1, 2008.

  • “Speaking for Themselves? Understanding Freed Slave Testimonies from 19th-Century Eastern Africa,” co-authored with Edward A. Alpers, presentation to 122nd Annual Meeting of the American Historical Association, Washington, DC, January 3-6, 2008.

  • “The Nineteenth-Century Slave Trade from East Africa to Arabia Reconsidered,” Presented to 50th Annual Meeting of the African Studies Association, New York, NY, October 18, 2007.

  • “Slavery, Family Life, and the African Diaspora in the Arabian Gulf, 1880-1940,” Presented to International Conference on Sex, Power and Slavery: The Dynamics of Carnal Relations Under Enslavement, Indian Ocean World Centre (IOWC), McGill University, Montreal, Canada, April, 19-21 2007.

  • “British Antislavery and Ambiguities of Arab and African Identity in the Western Indian Ocean,” Presented to 49th Annual African Studies Association Annual Meeting, San Francisco, CA, November 18, 2006.

  • “Slavery, Hegemony, and Resistance in the Arabian Gulf in the Late Nineteenth and Early Twentieth Centuries,” Presented to 120th Annual Meeting of the American Historical Association, Philadelphia, PA, January 8, 2006

  • “Slaves, Dates, and Pearls: The African Diaspora in the Arabian Gulf and the World Economy, 1860-1925,” Presented to African History Seminar, School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS), University of London, May 18, 2005

  • “The African Diaspora in Southeast Arabia,” Presented to The African Diaspora in the Indian Ocean, Spellman College, Atlanta, GA, April 8, 2004

  • “African Labor and the Arabian Gulf Pearl Diving Industry, 1873-1948,” Presented to 46th Annual African Studies Association Meeting, Boston, October 31, 2003

  • “The Life of Pearls: Economic and Cultural Aspects of the Pearl and Mother-of-Pearl Trade in Oman and the Arabian Gulf, 1820-1944,” Presented to Oman Historical Association, Muscat, Sultanate of Oman, May 27, 2002.

  • “Globalization, DNA, and Ethnicity: Genetic Genealogy and the Future of Diaspora Studies” Presented to Globalicities: A Conference on Issues Related to Globalization, Michigan State University, October 19, 2001.

  • “Sex and Race in Apartheid South Africa: The implementation and enforcement of the Anti-Miscegenation Law of 1950,” Presented to 42nd Annual African Studies Association Meeting, Philadelphia, November 1999.

  • “Educating Syrian Women: The American Junior College for Women in Beirut, 1921-36,” Presented at 3rd Annual James A. Barnes History Conference, Temple University, February 1998.

ORGANIZATIONAL MEMBERSHIPS

  • African Studies Association

  • American Historical Association

  • Middle East Studies Association

COURSES