Susan D. Amussen
Professor
School of Social Sciences, Humanities and Arts
Office Phone: (209) 288-4590
Email: samussen@ucmerced.edu
I am a social and cultural historian of Britain in the early modern period – roughly 1500 to 1750. I am particularly interested in the various hierarchies and structures of power that organize society. My published work has focused on issues of class and gender, race and slavery. My most recent book, Caribbean Exchanges: Slavery and the Transformation of English Society looks at what English people had to learn to become slaveowners in the Caribbean, and what they brought back to England from the island colonies. They brought more than the sugar for which the islands were known; they also brought ideas about race and work, about the organization of work, and law and punishment. My current projects include a synthetic essay on gender in the early modern Atlantic world, and a project on England as a cultural crossroads in the early modern period. I am also interested in relationships between history and literature; I am writing an article on the historical contexts for Shakespeare.
School of Social Sciences, Humanities and Arts
Office Phone: (209) 288-4590
Email: samussen@ucmerced.edu
Research Interests:
I am a social and cultural historian of Britain in the early modern period – roughly 1500 to 1750. I am particularly interested in the various hierarchies and structures of power that organize society. My published work has focused on issues of class and gender, race and slavery. My most recent book, Caribbean Exchanges: Slavery and the Transformation of English Society looks at what English people had to learn to become slaveowners in the Caribbean, and what they brought back to England from the island colonies. They brought more than the sugar for which the islands were known; they also brought ideas about race and work, about the organization of work, and law and punishment. My current projects include a synthetic essay on gender in the early modern Atlantic world, and a project on England as a cultural crossroads in the early modern period. I am also interested in relationships between history and literature; I am writing an article on the historical contexts for Shakespeare.