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DEPARTMENT OF HISTORY > People > Kevin McDonald

Kevin McDonald

A.W. Mellon Postdoctoral Fellow in the Humanities (Visiting Asst. Professor)
Ph.D.: Univ. of California, Santa Cruz, 2008
Department Member Since: 2011

Biography

Dr. Kevin P. McDonald, A.W. Mellon Postdoctoral Fellow in the Humanities, is a historian of Colonial America and the Atlantic World, with a special interest in piracy, colonialism, slavery, and global maritime histories and cultures. Prof. McDonald received his Ph.D. in History at the University of California, Santa Cruz (2008) and the M.A. in History from Rutgers University (2002). Prof. McDonald has taught courses in American history, world history, and maritime history at UC Santa Cruz, The Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art, and New York University.

Dr. McDonald has written numerous articles, essays, and book reviews. His forthcoming book, Pirates, Merchants, Settlers, and Slaves: New York, Madagascar, and the Indo-Atlantic Trade World, 1645-1730, explores pirate trade networks that connected the Atlantic and Indian Ocean worlds. Prof. McDonald has received research and writing grants and awards from the Huntington Library, the Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History, the Massachusetts Historical Society, and the Univ. of California, in order to complete archival and field research in New York, Boston, California, the Caribbean, London, Madagascar, and Mauritius. He has presented his research at numerous academic conferences in the United States and Great Britain, and he has appeared on the History Channel as an expert in early modern piracy.

Prof. McDonald has served as review editor of the H-Atlantic discussion network and is an active member of the American Historical Association, the World History Association, and the International Conference on Maritime History. He was also the Resident Advisor for the UC London study abroad program in Fall 2005, where he completed much of his research on pirate networks and the slave trade.

selected Publications

Pirates, Merchants, Settlers, and Slaves: New York, Madagascar, and the Indo-Atlantic Trade World, 1645-1730 (under revision for University of California Press)
“‘The Dream of Madagascar’: English Disasters and Pirate Utopias of the Early Modern Indo- Atlantic World,” in New Worlds Reflected: Travel and Utopia in the Early Modern Period, ed. Chloe Houston. London: Ashgate Publishing, 2010.
“The United States and the World: A Globalized U.S. History Survey,” in Teaching American History in a Global Context, eds. Carl Guarneri and James Davis. Armonk, NY and London: M.E. Sharpe, 2008.
Colonial America: An Encyclopedia of Social, Political, Cultural, and Economic History. Armonk, NY: M.E. Sharp, 2006. (content contributor)
"‘A Man of Courage and Activity’: Thomas Tew and Pirate Settlements of the Indo-Atlantic Trade World, 1645-1730" (October 3, 2005). UC World History Workshop. Working Papers from the World History Workshop Conference Series. Paper 2. http://repositories.cdlib.org/ucwhw/wp/2.
Book Reviews
Peter Jimack (ed.), A History of the Two Indies: A Translated Selection of Writings from Raynal’s Histoire Philosophique et Politique des Établissements des Européens dans les Deux Indies, for Itinerario, Vol. 31, Issue 3, 2007.
Russell K. Skowronek and Charles R. Ewen (eds.), X Marks the Spot: New Perspectives on Maritime History and Nautical Archaeology, for Journal of British Studies Vol. 46, No. 2, April 2007, p. 469-470.
Marcus Rediker, Villains of All Nations, for the H-Atlantic Discussion Network, December 2005

Courses Taught

Colonial America and the Atlantic World, 1450-1763

Contact Info

Department of History
Wean Hall 8101
P: 412.268.2917
F: 412.268.1019
kevinmcd@andrew.cmu.edu

Publications