Faculty Profile
- Rockel, Steve, Ph.D. Toronto
- Associate Professor, UTSC
- stephen.rockel@utoronto.ca
- (416) 287-7145
- Office: UTSC H520 & SS 2059
Field: African history; colonialisms; labour and slavery; war and society
A specialist in Tanzanian and East African history, Professor Rockel also has strong interests in South African history, African labour history, slavery, urban history, and war and society throughout the continent and beyond, particularly in the wider Indian Ocean region. His book, Carriers of Culture: Labor on the Road in Nineteenth-Century East Africa, was published in the Heinemann Social History of Africa series in 2006 and was awarded the Joel Gregory Prize by the Canadian Association of African Studies. He edited (with Rick Halpern) ‘Collateral Damage’: Civilian Casualties, War and Empire (Between-the-Lines Press, 2009). His current projects include explorations in the history of slavery in Tanzania, the roots of Tanzanian national identity, and the urban history of Tabora, a nineteenth century commercial town. He has taught history at the University of KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa and Addis Ababa University, Ethiopia. In 2014-15 he was awarded a fellowship at the re:work International Research Centre, “Work and Human Life-Cycle in Global History”, Humboldt University, Berlin. He prepares students for fields in African history, colonialisms, comparative histories of labour and slavery, and war and society in imperial and postcolonial contexts.