Ralph Callebert

Ph.D. Candidate/Teaching Fellow
African History

E-mail: ralph.callebert@queensu.ca
Phone: 613-533-6000 ext: 75750
Fax: 613-533-6298
Office: MacCorry E319
Office Hours: TBD

 

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Education

Kandidatuur (2003) and licentie (2005) in history, Ghent University, Belgium
M.A. in economic history, University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban, South Africa (2006)

About

My research and teaching interests are in African and Southern African history with a focus on economic changes, inequality, labour, and 'development'. This focus also includes attention to land, the informal economy, and gender. Other interests include world history and the development and spread of capitalist relations.

The research for my PhD brought me back to Durban, South Africa, where I did my M.A. Apart from being the second biggest city in the country, it is also its main harbour and one of the biggest container ports in the southern hemisphere. In my research, I look at the livelihood strategies of African dock workers in this city up to the moment when casual labour was phased out in 1959. With this approach, I try to get a sense of the strategies, economic rationales, priorities, and aspirations of these migrant workers under a regime that treated them as second class citizens.

Courses Taught

In 2011-12, I teach 470 'The Development of Capitalism in Sub-Saharan Africa' and one of the sections of 122 'The Making of the Modern World'.

Publications: "Undressing the South African crime discourse." In: Undressing Durban, edited by Rob Pattman and Sultan Khan. Durban: Madiba Press, 2007.

"Cleaning the Wharves: Pilferage, Bribery, and Social Connections on the Durban Docks in the 1950s." Canadian Journal of African Studies(forthcoming).