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John Stoner

Assistant Professor

Ph.D., Columbia University
20th century U.S. political and labor history, 20th century South African history

 
Office: LT 713
Phone: (607) 777-2382 E-mail: jstoner@binghamton.edu
In general, my broad research and teaching interests encompass modern American political and social history, sub-Saharan African history (particularly South Africa), and comparative history. The manuscript currently in progress is a history of the initiatives by American organized labor toward African trade union organizations during the Cold War. It focuses predominantly on American labor's relations with two countries, Ghana and Kenya, as contexts in which that policy was conceived and implemented. As I reshape the manuscript for publication, South Africa is emerging in a later period as an important locus of domestic and international labor activity. The manuscript will provide a better glimpse into how powerful non-governmental organizations like unions and trade union federations influenced political change and economic development in key regions in Africa. Integral to this analysis of the transnational influence of the United States is an understanding of the larger relationships which existed between various nations and labor organizations in North America, Europe, and Africa.

Recent or current undergraduate courses:

  • Modern American Civilization
  • U.S. Wars in Comparative Perspectives

Significant Publications:

  • Contributing editor, "United States Foreign Policy in Sub-Saharan Africa," in Beisner et al., eds., American Foreign Relations Since 1600: A Guide to the Literature, 2nd edition (Santa Barbara: ABC-CLIO, 2003).
  • Makonde (New York: Rosen Publishing, 1998).
  • "Broadside Press," "Arthur Huff Fauset," "William Alphaeus Hunton, Jr.," Morehouse College," "Operation PUSH," "Colin Powell," and others entries in Salzman, Smith, West, eds., Encyclopedia of African American Culture and History (New York: MacMillan, 1996).

Select Presentations:

  • "A Good Case for Comparison? Coal Mining in Natal and West Virginia Examined, 1885-1930." Paper presented to the African Studies Association Convention, November 1996, San Francisco, California.
  • "Cooperation or Conflict? The AFL-CIO in Sub-Saharan Africa, 1957-1966." Paper presented to the Annual Conference of the Society for Historians of American Foreign Relations, June 1998, College Park, Maryland.
  • "Did America's Trade Unions Challenge Apartheid? The AFL-CIO in South Africa,
    1960-1980." Paper presented at the African Studies Association Convention, October 1998, Chicago, Illinois.
  • "Could Labor be Both Neo-Colonialist and Pan-African?: AFL-CIO African Policy and the Career of George McCray." Paper presented to the North American Labor History Conference, October 2002, Detroit, Michigan.

Prizes/Fellowships:

  • Humanities Faculty Development Grant, Union College, 2002.
  • Faculty Development Grant, Skidmore College, 2001.
  • Eisenhower World Affairs Institute Fellow, 1998-1999.
  • Summer Fellow, Institute of African Studies, Columbia University, 1996.
  • President's Fellow, Columbia University, 1993-1996, 1998-1999.
  • Fulbright Scholar, Johannesburg, South Africa, 1992.
  • Richard Hofstadter Fellow, Columbia University, 1991, 1993.