Caree Banton, PhD

- An unapologetic Historian on the African Diaspora -

“Until lions have their historians, tales of the hunt shall always glorify the hunters” 
– African Proverb

Author of More Auspicious Shores. Prof of Caribbean History & Africa and African Diaspora Studies. Rotary Ambassadorial Scholar. Often accused of "blacking it up"

Dr. Caree Banton

Caree is an Assistant Professor of Afro-Caribbean History at the University of Arkansas who is jointly appointed in History and African and African American Studies.
She received a MA in Development Studies from the University of Ghana in July, 2012 and completed her doctoral work at Vanderbilt University in June, 2013.

Her research focuses on movements around abolition, emancipation, colonization as well as ideas of citizenship, blackness, and nationhood in the 19th century.

Dr. Banton’s research has been supported by a number of fellowships, including

  • The Rotary Ambassadorial Scholarship that allowed her to do research in West Africa
  • The Andrew M. Mellon Foundation Fellowship at the Robert Penn Warren Center where she joined a group of scholars across a wide range of academic disciplines in the Sawyer Seminar–“The Age of Emancipation: Black Freedom in the Atlantic World”– to study abolition, anti-slavery, and emancipation for the 150th anniversary of the Emancipation Proclamation,
  • The Lapidus Center Fellowship at the Schomburg Center
  • The Nancy Weiss Malkiel Fellowship for exceptional scholarship and participation in service activities

At the University of Arkansas, Caree teaches classes in Afro-Caribbean History, African Diaspora History, and race. Her book, “More Auspicious Shores”: Barbadian Migration to Liberia, Blackness, and the Making of the Liberian Republic, 1865 – 1912 (Cambridge University Press, 2019) explores continuities and mutabilities in black experiences of freedom, citizenship and nationhood across the atlantic world.

Education & Degrees

  • PhD, History, Vanderbilt University, Nashville
  • MA, International Developmnt, University of Ghana, Legon
  • MA, History, Vanderbilt University, Nashville
  • MA, History, University of New Orleans, New Orleans
  • BA, History, Grambling State University, Grambling
  • BSPA, Public Administration, Grambling State University, Grambling

Publications

  • More Auspicious Shores: Barbadian Migration, Blackness, and the Making of an African Republic, 1865 – 1912, Cambridge University Press, May 2019
  • Who is Black in a Black Republic? Labor in the Remaking of Citizenship in Liberia, University of Georgia Press, 2018
  • Prelude to 1865: “Class Crisis in the Barbadian Emancipation Transition
  • Nationalism and Not Racialism”: Liberia in the Making and Un-Making of Garveyism, 3, July (3rd Quarter/Summer) 2017

Presentations

  • Another National Experiment:” Post-Emancipation, Black Republics, and Citizenship, Conference on Citizenship , March 2015
  • Barbadians Encounter the African Coast: Settlement, Identity, and Stratification in Liberia, Black Studies Fall Conference, October 2018
  • Class Crisis and Migration in Post-Emancipation Barbados, Texas Center for Working Class Studies Conference, March 2018
  • Heritages of Migration, Moving Images Conference, April 2017

Honors & Awards

  • Omni Center for Peace, Justice and Ecology Award
  • Lapidus Center Fellowship from the Schomberg Center for the Study of Black Culture