Jeffrey Fortin

Chair, Department of History; Associate Professor of History

Contact Information

617 975-9119

fortinj@emmanuel.edu

Office Hours

Office: Administration Building, Room 361

Education

Ph.D., M.A., The University of New Hampshire; B.A., Boston University

Bio

Born in Hawai'i, I learned to walk while aboard a sailboat, which may be why my research and teaching interests revolve around the sea and the maritime world. Being an Air Force kid, I have lived in a few different states from Texas to Maine, giving me a plain Jane accent and a thorough love for the four seasons, although as an avid hockey player and snowshoer winter is clearly my favorite time of year. Academic tourism is a great benefit of being a historian, with my most recent project taking me from London to Halifax, Nova Scotia to New Bedford, MA to conduct research in sometimes dusty, sometimes state-of-the-art archives. Once I received my PhD from UNH in 2006, I began a tenure-track position at SUNY - Oneonta, where I stayed for 5 years until being hired by Emmanuel College. At Emmanuel, I teach courses in Atlantic History, Early America and Slavery. Pirates also appear frequently in ourse materials.

What I Love About Emmanuel:

Emmanuel is a tight-knit community with a positive vibe and whose members believe anything is possible. Virtually every member of our community buys into the mission of the college: believing strongly in social justice and educating the entire person by adhering to the centuries old Catholic intellectual tradition, which means no topic, subject or research is off-limits. We are a true liberal arts college with an open and diverse population who want to explore ideas and have conversations about how to make our world a better place.

Courses I Teach

HIST1114 Creating the Atlantic World
HIST2104 Age of Atlantic Revolution
HIST2106 History of New England
HIST2207 Slavery in Global History
HIST3718 Pirates, Rascals and Scoundrels

Publications & Presentations

Publishing:

Associate Editor, The New England Journal of History, 2018-present

Journal Articles/ Book Chapters:

"Cuffe's Black Atlantic World, 1807-1817," in Atlantic Studies, Vol. 4, No. 2 (October 2007), 245-266.
"Blackened beyond Our Native Hue:" Removal, Identity and the Trelawney Maroons on the Margins of the Atlantic World, 1796-1800" in Freedom on the Margins: A Special Issue of Citizenship Studies. Vol. 10, No. 1 (February 2006), 5-34.
"'An Act of Deportation:' Jamaican Maroons' Journey from Freedom to Slavery and Back Again, 1796-1836," in Slaving Paths: Rebuilding and Rethinking the Atlantic World, ed Ana-Lucia Araujo, New York: Cambria Press, 2011.
"Slave Resistance and Rebellion" in The Atlantic World, 1450-1850, ed. William O'Reilly, London: Routledge, June 2011 (Forthcoming December 2011)

Books:

Atlantic Biographies: Individuals and Peoples in the Atlantic World. eds Mark Meuwese & Jeffrey A. Fortin. Leiden: Brill Academic Press, (forthcoming 2013).
Book Manuscript: "Paul Cuffe: Yeoman," in progress.

Invited Papers/Public Lectures:

"Paul Cuffe And His Vision For A New World," New Bedford Historical Society, September 17,2017
"Two Generations of Freedom: From Kofi to Paul Cuffe," Little Compton History Society, RI, February 1, 2017

Conference Papers:

"'From the Imperial Plum to Plain Cake, Adapted to this Country:' Cookbooks and Identity in the 18th-Century Atlantic World," at the World History Association annual conference, Northeastern University, Summer 2017
"It appears that there is not so much industry:" Paul Cuffe's Vision of Sierra Leone", at the World History Association annual conference, Northeastern University, Summer 2017

The Davis Educational Foundation Grant, Designing and Implementing Innovative Shared Academic Programming, Co-author Dr. Violetta Ravagnoli, 2017-2018
Level Up Teaching Development Workshop 2017
Paul Cuffe Fellow, Mystic Seaport Museum, Summer 2015
Faculty Development Grant, Emmanuel College, 2012
Faculty Research Grant, State University of New York College at Oneonta, 2011
Faculty Travel Grant, State University of New York College at Oneonta, 2007
Short-Term Research Grant, The International Seminar on the History of the Atlantic World, Harvard University, 2007
Darrett and Anita Rutman Fellow, History Department, University of New Hampshire, 2005-2006
Mary Catherine Mooney Fellow, Boston Athenaeum, Boston, Massachusetts, 2005
Andrew W. Mellon Fellow, Massachusetts Historical Society, Boston, Massachusetts, 2005
Batten Fellow, Robert H. Smith International Center for Jefferson Studies at Monticello, Charlottesville, Va., 2005

Research Focus

I specialize in Atlantic history, with an emphasis on race, class and slavery, the Age of Revolutions, and even dabble in New England history as it relates to the larger Atlantic world. My current projects include a co-edited book, Atlantic Biographies: Individuals and Peoples in the Atlantic World (Meuwese & Fortin) will be published by Brill Academic Press in the fall 2013. My next book project, "Paul Cuffe: Yeoman," takes a new look at the life of America's most celebrated and successful black sea captain, Paul Cuffe (1759-1817), as he traveled the Atlantic world building his shipping business and attempting to found an independent colony for free blacks in West Africa.