Joseph Inikori

As an economic historian, with specialization in international trade and economic development, I attempt in my research and teaching to make history relevant to the main concerns of people in our contemporary world. Since the social sciences do not have laboratories, as the natural sciences do, I believe history can operate as a laboratory for the better understanding of issues that are of primary concern in our modern world. Without being teleological, I take a long-term view of the development process, in all its complexities that require a multidisciplinary approach. My interest in the Industrial Revolution in England, which ultimately led to my 2002 book, was originally inspired by the possible lessons it can offer to policymakers concerned with long-run development problems of our time. My study located the Industrial Revolution within the broad context of Atlantic world history. My current fellowship project extends that approach to western Africa's long-run development process from 1450 to 1900.Although my Ph.D. dissertation was written for the University of Ibadan, by special arrangement, much of the work was done at the London School of Economics, where I benefited from the school's strong program in development economics and economic history, as well as the stimulating seminars of the Institute of Historical Research conducted by the best minds from all the colleges of London University and visiting scholars from all over the world researching in London. After starting my university teaching career at the University of Ibadan (1972-73) and moving to Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria (1973), I returned, once again, to the London School of Economics as a Commonwealth Academic Staff Fellow (1974-75). Subsequently, I was in the Centre of West African Studies, Birmingham University, as a John Cadbury Visiting Fellow (1980), where I had the opportunity to interact with Antony G. Hopkins, John D. Fage, Marion Johnson, and other eminent scholars in African studies. After spending fifteen years at Ahmadu Bello University (1973-87), I moved to the University of Rochester in 1988.Since the 1970s, I have acted as a consulting scholar to UNESCO in a number of its projects, including the General History of Africa. I served as a member of the International Drafting Committee for the General History of the Caribbean (from the 1980s). Apart from my professional work in the academy, I have also done some advisory work for the Federal Government in Nigeria. I served briefly as one of the founding Directing Staff of the National Institute for Policy and Strategic Studies, Jos (1979) and was appointed by President Babangida (1987) to chair a presidential panel charged with the task of working out solutions to the problem of inter-group relations in Nigeria.My life time achievement honors include: "The distinguished Africana Award" from the African New World Studies Program, Florida International University (2007); "Distinguished Africanist Award" from the New York State African Studies Association (2008); and I was proclaimed "Distinguished Visitor" by the officials of the City of Miami for my "contributions to the examination of the African Atlantic..." (2007). My book, Africans and the Industrial Revolution in England, won the 2003 American Historical Association's Leo Gershoy Award, and also the 2003 African Studies Association's Herskovits Award.
 

Education

B.A. (Honors) (1967) History, University of Ibadan; Ph.D. (1973) History, University of Ibadan
 

Experience

• Director of Graduate Studies, Department of History, University of Rochester, 2001-2006
• Associate Director, Frederick Douglass Institute for African and African-American Studies, University of Rochester, 1989-1998
• Professor of History, University of Rochester, since 1989
• Visiting Professor, University of Rochester, 1988
• Chairman, Department of History, Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria, 1982-1986
• Professor of History, Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria, 1981-1988
• Reader, Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria,1978-1981
• Senior Lecturer, Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria, 1976-1978
• Lecturer I, Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria, 1974-1976
• Assistant Lecturer, University of Ibadan, 1972-1973

Expertise

Global economic history, with specialization in international trade and economic development in the Atlantic world