Robert Connell

Biography

Rob earned his Bachelor of Environmental Studies degree with honors and a minor in Political Science from York University, Canada in 2009 and earned his Master’s degree in African American Studies from UC Berkeley in 2012. His dissertation subject examines the legacy of dual ethnogenesis in 21st century circum-Caribbean Maroon conflicts over resource extraction and sovereignty. Specifically, Rob is investigating the politicization of Jamaican and Surinamese Maroon communities given contemporary challenges to their self-proclaimed sovereignty through state-sanctioned resource extraction in the context of Maroon ethnic distinction. This research engages primarily with Caribbean history, ethnic multiplicity within the African Diaspora, political ecology, the politics of autonomy, and development studies. Rob’s parallel research interests include participatory research methods, African critical theory, and the function of utopia and radical imagination in the African diaspora.