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Name: Kevin Dawson
Major: History
Year: Ph.D. candidate
Hometown: Cerritos, Calif.
You’re a native Californian, and a lifelong surfer, and you have bachelor’s and master’s degrees from California State University in Fullerton. Why did you move cross-country to get a Ph.D.? Dan Littlefield is a principle reason I came to USC. He’s one of the nation’s most-respected scholars of African-American history, and I had read his articles and landmark book, Rice and Slaves: Ethnicity and the Slave Trade in Colonial South Carolina. Another reason is the recent high-caliber growth of the history department.
What is your area of study? Southern history, maritime history, slavery, and Atlantic Studies. Not much has been written on maritime slavery: the field is wide open. And Atlantic Studies is an emerging field that looks at how Europe, Africa, and the Americas have interacted culturally, socially, and economically. As these different groups came together, they formed rich, diverse cultures. These areas also offer great travel (and surfing!) opportunities. I’ve done research in Africa, in Barbados, and throughout the U.S.
Mostly archival research? I do a lot of archival research, but I also conduct interviews and what could be called hands-on research. In Africa, I saw that the villages still use the fishing skills the slaves brought to America, and they still make and use dugout canoes. They are very open to talking about and demonstrating their fishing skills, and the fishermen invited me to go fishing with them. In Barbados, I was able to dive for and harvest conch, a centuries-old skill.
You’re so close to graduation. Is your dissertation complete? For the most part. It’s titled, “Enslaved Watermen in the Atlantic World,” and it looks closely at how slaves were able to bring their African maritime skills to the Americas and how that benefited New World societies. For example, I’ve examined how the slaves fished, and for what kind of fish, and how that influenced dietary habits both within and outside slave communities.
You’re enjoying some national recognition right now. I just found out in February that I’ve won the Louis Pelzer Award from the Journal of American History for an article on enslaved underwater divers. The Pelzer Award includes publication of the article I submitted, a cash prize, and a trip to the Organization of American Historians national conference in San Francisco this March. Earlier in the academic year, I received a Ford Foundation Dissertation Fellowship and a one-month fellowship to do research at Huntington Library in California. I’ve also had a fellowship to do research at Yale and Brown Universities, and the Mystic Seaport Museum in Connecticut.
What will you remember about your time at USC? The history department has been great. The faculty and staff could not have been more supportive of me and my research. I’ve also had a lot of opportunities here. I was a research assistant for Valinda Littlefield and Bobby Donaldson, and they involved me in their work. I went with them to Duke University and UNC twice to conduct research. Once I have a faculty position, I would like to offer my students similar opportunities.
2/05
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