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Catherine Higgs

See Also: Curriculum Vitae

Field Specialties

Africa, South Africa,
Women's History, Religion, British and Portuguese Colonialism

A scholar of southern Africa, Professor Higgs’ previous books include The Ghost of Equality: The Public Lives of D.D.T. Jabavu of South Africa, 1885-1959 (Athens: Ohio University Press, 1997), and with Barbara A. Moss and Rae Ferguson, Stepping Forward: Black Women in Africa and the Americas (Athens: Ohio University Press, 2002). The latter volume collected the edited and revised essays from “Black Women in the Old World and the New,” the conference Professor Higgs organized at the University of Tennessee in September 1999. The conference, which was funded by grants from the Rockefeller Foundation and the University of Tennessee, included scholars from Kenya, South Africa, the West Indies, and the United States, and examined the cultural, religious and historical experiences of black women in Africa and in the New World.

Dr. Higgs is working on two book projects. The first, "Chocolate, Slavery, and Work: Portuguese Africa and the English Cocoa Controversy" examines the allegations that slave labor was being used to produce cocoa on West African plantations in the early twentieth century. The second book, "Faith, Politics and Catholic Nuns in Apartheid South Africa," examines the activism of religious women against the oppressive apartheid state.

Professor Higgs teaches the African history survey, a course on South African history, the second part of the World History Survey and graduate courses on African history and Teaching World History.

Education

  • Ph.D., Yale University, 1993
  • M.Phil, Yale University, 1987
  • M.A., Yale University, 1985

Selected Publications

  • With Jean N. Evans, R.S.M. “Embracing Activism in Apartheid South Africa: The Sisters of Mercy in Bophuthatswana, 1974-94.” The Catholic Historical Review. (July 2008)

  • “Zenzele: African Women’s Self-Help Organizations in South Africa, 1927-1998.” African Studies Review 47 3 (December 2004): 119-141.

  • "Sex, Drugs and HIV/Aids in Contemporary South Africa." African Studies Review 38 2 (September 2004).

  • Stepping Forward: Black Women in Africa and the Americas. Edited by Catherine Higgs, Barbara A. Moss, and Earline Rae Ferguson. Athens: Ohio University Press, 2002.

  • "Travel with a Purpose: A South African at Tuskegee, 1913." Journal of African Travel Writing 8/9 (2000): 126-132.

  • "Full Circle: Sol Plaatje, Anton Lembede, Mampela Ramphele and the Struggle for Civil Rights in South Africa." Canadian Journal of African Studies 32 2 (1998): 380-89.

  • The Ghost of Equality: The Public Lives of D.D.T. Jabavu of South Africa, 1885-1959. Athens: Ohio University Press, 1997.

Selected Honors and Awards

  • University of Tennessee Award for New Research, Scholarly, and Creative Projects in the Arts and Humanities, 2008 and 2009.
  • American Philosophical Society Sabbatical Fellowship, Spring 2006.
  • SARIF Small Grant, University of Tennessee, Fall 2005.
  • University of Tennessee Sabbatical, Fall 2005.
  • Luso-American Development Foundation grant, National Library of Portugal, Summer 2004.
  • University of Tennessee Chancellor's Award for Excellence in Teaching, 2004.
  • University of Tennessee Faculty Research Award, 1998, 2002, 2003.
  • Visiting Fellow in History, Yale University, 2001-2002.
  • Rockefeller Foundation grant for the conference "Black Women in the Old World and the New," University of Tennessee, 1999.
Catherine Higgs

Contact Information

Catherine Higgs
Associate Professor of History
915 Volunteer Boulevard
6th Floor, Dunford Hall
Knoxville, TN 37996-4065

Office: (865) 974-7095
Fax: (865) 974-3915
E-mail: chiggs@utk.edu