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Matthew 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

Postdoctoral Fellow, Yale University (2009)
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 on the history of the African diaspora in Arabia.

AWARDS, HONORS & PROFESSIONAL ACTIVITIES

Postdoctoral Fellowship, Gilder Lehrman Center, Yale University, Fall 2009
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

“‘Slaves of One Master’: Globalization and the African Diaspora in Arabia in the Age of Empire,” in Robert Harms and Bernard K. Freamon (eds.), Slavery and the Slave Trades in the Indian Ocean and Arab Worlds: Global Connections and Disconnections (Yale University Press, forthcoming 2011).
“Slavery, Family Life, and the African Diaspora in the Arabian Gulf, 1880-1940,” in Gwyn Campbell (ed.), Sex, Power and Slavery: The Dynamics of Carnal Relations Under Enslavement (Ohio University Press, forthcoming 2011).
“The Globalization of Dried Fruit: Transformation of the Eastern Arabian Economy, 1860s-1920s,” in James L. Gelvin and Nile Green (eds.), Circuits and Networks: Muslim Interactions in the First Age of Globalization (forthcoming 2011).
“Globalization and the Economics of African Slavery in Arabia in the Age of Empire,” Journal of African Development 12, no. 1 (Spring 2010): 125-146.
“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.

BOOK REVIEWS

“Review of Yacoub Yusuf Al-Hijji, Kuwait and the Sea: A Brief Social and Economic History,” The Mariner's Mirror: The International Journal of the Society for Nautical Research (forthcoming 2011).
“Review of Jonathan Miran, Red Sea Citizens: Cosmopolitan Society and Cultural Change in Massawa,” African Studies Review (forthcoming 2011).
“Review of Shihan de Silva Jayasuria, African Identity in Asia: Cultural Effects of Forced Migration,” The International Journal of African Historical Studies 42, no. 2 (2009), 341-342.
“Review of Adam Hochschild, King Leopold’s Ghost; A Story of Greed Terror, and heroism in Colonial Africa,” Ufahamu 25, no. 3 (Fall, 1997).

SELECTED PRESENTATIONS

“Cyclones, Drought, and Slavery: Environment and Enslavement in Oman, 1873-1927” presentation to Enslavement, Bondage and the Environment in the Indian Ocean World, Indian Ocean World Centre, McGill University, Montreal, Canada, April 28-30, 2011.
“The Limits of Freedom: British Manumission Policy in the Gulf, 1907-1949” presentation to panel “Legal Spaces and Social Networks: Relocating the Gulf in the Age of Empire” 44th Annual Meeting of the Middle East Studies Association, San Diego, CA, November 18-21, 2010.
“Globalization, Slavery and East African Poverty in the Longue Durée” presentation to Understanding African Poverty over the Longue Durée, conference by the Harvard University Weatherhead Center for International Affairs in partnership with the International Institute for the Advanced Study of Cultures, Institutions and Economic Enterprise, Accra, Ghana, July 15-17, 2010.
“East Africa and the End of the Indian Ocean Slave Trade,” presentation to Africa and the Indian Ocean, NYU Abu Dhabi Institute, Abu Dhabi, UAE, March 14-16, 2010.
“The Globalization of Dried Fruit: Transformation of the Eastern Arabian Economy, 1860s-1920s” presentation to Circuits and Networks: Muslim Interactions in the First Age of Globalization, UCLA Center for India and South Asia, Los Angeles, CA, February 25-26, 2010.
“Pearls, Globalization, and Slavery in Arabia in the Age of Empire,” presentation on panel “New Research in the Global History of Pearl Diving,” American Historical Association 124th Annual Meeting, San Diego, CA, January 9, 2010.
“Globalization, Slavery, and the African Diaspora in Arabia in the Age of Empire,” invited lecture to Gilder Lehrman Center Annual Lecture Series, Yale University, December 9, 2009.
“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