Academic & Teaching staff

Dr Kate Dossett

Senior Lecturer in American History

+44 (0)113 34 33288

Biography

I took my undergraduate degree in History at Balliol College, Oxford before going to Warwick to study for an MA by Research. I undertook doctoral study at St Johns College, Cambridge during which time I also spent a year as a Visiting Scholar at Columbia University in New York City. I taught at the London School of Economics and at Cambridge University before moving to Leeds to take up a lectureship in American History in 2003. In November 2009, my book Bridging Race Divides: Black Nationalism, Feminism and Integration 1896-1935 was awarded the 2009 Julia Cherry Spruill Prize by the Southern Association for Women Historians for best book in southern women's history.

Research interests

My research focuses on race and gender in the nineteenth and twentieth century United States.  My two main areas of interest are women’s cultural, social and political histories and histories of the African Diaspora including black nationalism, the international black left, and black feminism.  I am particularly interested in black theatre, representations of black incarceration, memory studies and the literature of the Harlem Renaissance.

Publications

Dossett, Bridging Race Divides: Black Nationalism, Feminism and Integration 1896-1935 (Gainesville: University Press of Florida, 2008).

Dossett, “Commemorating Haiti on the Harlem Stage,” Journal of American Drama and Theatre, Volume 22:1, (2010).

Dossett: “Staging the Garveyite Home: Black Masculinity, Failure and Redemption in Theodore Ward’s Big White Fog.” African American Review Volume 43:4,(2009).

Dossett, ‘“I try to live somewhat in keeping with my reputation as a wealthy woman”: A’Lelia Walker and the Madam C. J. Walker Manufacturing Company,’ Journal of Women’s History, Volume 21.2, (2009).

Dossett, “Black Women, Work and Freedom,” in J. Campbell and R. Fraser eds., Reconstruction: Perspectives in American Social History (ABC-CLIO, 2008): 135-159.

Dossett, “Amy Jacques Garvey” and “Jessie Fauset,” in Richard M. Juang and Noelle Morrissette eds., Africa and the Americas, (ABC-CLIO, 2008).

Recent and Forthcoming Papers

April 2012: “Un-American Performances: Gender and the Dies Committee Hearings on the Federal Theatre Project” British Association of American Studies Annual Conference, Manchester University

March 2012 “Un-American Women: Gender, Performance and the Dies Committee Hearings on the Federal Theatre Project” History of Women in the Americas Annual Conference, Brunel University

November 2011: "’Our Actors May Become Our Emancipators’: Race and Realism in 1930s American Political Theatre,” Invited Speaker, Glasgow American Studies seminar.

September 2011: “Un-American Theatre during the Great Depression,” at Un-Americans and the Un-American: From 1776 to 9/11” Leicester University.

October 2010: “The Problem of the Black Hero:  John Henry, Bigger Thomas and Depression Era Theatre." Invited Speaker, Institute of Historical Research, London.

April 2010:”Race, Gender and Convict Labor in the Federal Theatre Project.” European Social Science History Conference, Ghent.

March 2010, “Dangerous Heroes: Black Badmen in 1930s American Theatre,” Invited Speaker, American Studies Seminar, Sussex University.

February 2010: "Performing in Chains: Race, Gender and Convict Labor in 1930s Black Theatre," Invited Speaker, American Studies Seminar, Manchester University.

November 2009: “African Americans and Convict Labor in the Federal Theatre Project” American Studies Association Conference, Washington D.C.

September 2009: “Haiti on the Harlem Stage” Invited Speaker, American Studies Reading Group, University of Sydney.

May 2009: “Haitian Heroes in Harlem”: Black Internationalism in the Federal Theatre Project 1935-1939. Nordic Association of American Studies, University of Copenhagen.    

Work in Progress

Stages in the Struggle: Black Theatre and Politics in 1930s America

This British Academy Funded project examines how and why black theatre became so central to black political debates in the 1930s. Although the Great Depression had devastating consequences for many American industries and workers, it brought great innovation to American theatre.

In 1935 President Roosevelt's New Deal Administration established the Federal Theatre Project (FTP), a relief programme designed to get theatre professionals into paid work and encourage creativity in the performing arts. While FTP units presented works from the existing commercial repertoire they also commissioned new works. Which new plays should be produced, how, and by whom, became a matter of legitimate public concern when they were supported by American tax dollars. Consequently each production was shaped by a lengthy process of consultation and contestation between producers, playwrights, actors, critics and audiences.

Critically, FTP units also reflected different regional, racial and ethnic identities.  One element of this diversification was the 17 so-called "Negro Units" created for African American playwrights, actors, producers and stage technicians. This unprecedented federal government support for a separate black theatre meant that Negro Unit productions became key sites for political struggle. The programmes and productions of the Negro Units were fought over, not only by policy makers and theatre audiences but also by political groups alive to the tremendous power of a fully-funded state theatre. Productions staged by the Negro Units provide a fascinating vehicle for understanding how African Americans used theatre to negotiate conflicting race, gender and class identities, shape political debates and mobilize support for black freedom struggles, ranging from labour strikes and fair rent campaigns, to protests against Mussolini's invasion of Ethiopia and in support of Republican Spain.

Incarceration Cultures

I am also developing a collaborative project on incarceration cultures with my colleague James Campbell (University of Leicester). "After Prison, Before Mass Incarceration: Former Prisoners and African American Communities, 1896 to 1954" explores how experiences of imprisonment shaped African American life, identity, and politics for former prisoners and the communities of which they were part. As part of this I am developing a monograph which examines captivity narratives, prison records and newspaper reports to construct a cultural-social history of black male incarceration.

Postgraduate Supervision

I welcome research students interested in any aspect of gender and race in nineteenth and twentieth Century U.S. history and American studies including: Women’s History, Black Internationalism; Black Radicalism; the Harlem Renaissance; American Communism, and Black Theatre history.

Current and Recent students

Say Burgin: White Anti-Racism Organising in 1960s and 70s U.S. Social Movements
Tom Davies: Black and White Politics -The Federal Government and Black Power, 1960-1972
Julio Decker: The Immigration Restriction League and the Political Regulation of Immigration, 1894-1924

Gina Denton: Gender, specifically ideas about motherhood impacted on social protest movements in the USA during the 1960s-1980s

Nicholas Grant: African Americans, Gender and the Global networks of Black Self-Determination, 1940-1960 (successful completed March 2012)
Daylin Myers: Women, Religion and Conversion
Danielle Sprecher: Fashion for the High Street: The Design and Making of Menswear in Leeds 1945-1980.

Teaching

Undergraduate Modules

Level 2

HIST 2442: Black Politics from Emancipation to Obama
HIST 2441: Race, Gender & Cultural Protest Since 1865:

Level 3 Special Subject:

HIST 3240: The Harlem Renaissance: Black Culture and Politics 1919-1940:

Postgraduate Modules

I am the Director of the interdisciplinary MA in Race & Resistance.  Race and Resistance is a unique interdisciplinary programme that transcends geographical boundaries and offers students a conceptual and thematic education in approaches to race and resistance. I am the module convenor for the core course: 'Approaches to Race' (HIST 5838M) and also offer an option module Black Internationalism (HIST 5839M): this module reflects my current research interests in black transnationalism.

Outreach / Wider Community

I regularly host Widening Participation workshops and give public talks on black history. These range from Black History Month workshops on campus for local school pupils, to public lectures at institutions such as the National Maritime Museum.

I am also involved in developing Knowledge Transfer initiatives within the School of History and the Faculty of Arts. Recent projects include collaboration with the West Yorkshire Playhouse in the recent production of The Hounding of David Oluwale. I also sit on the Faculty of Arts Opera North Group which coordinates collaboration between the Opera Company and researchers in ARTS.