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John D. French is a Professor of History at Duke University with secondary appointments in African and African-American Studies as well as International Comparative Studies. He earned his B.A. from Amherst College (magna cum laude) and received his doctorate from Yale University in 1985 under Brazilian historian Emília Viotti da Costa. For over four decades since 1979, Professor French has been studying class, race, and politics in Brazil and Latin America, producing 48 refereed articles along with numerous book chapters, briefing books, and reviews.
His academic leadership includes serving as Director of Duke's Latin American Center and the Carolina-Duke Consortium, Treasurer of LASA (Latin American Studies Association), and co-editor of the Hispanic American Historical Review. He has also served as co-director of the Duke Brazil Initiative, the Global Brazil Humanities Lab of the Franklin Humanities Institute (2014-17), and as faculty co-director of Bass Connections Project (2015-19) on 'The Cost of Opportunity: Social Mobility and Higher Education in Rio's Baixada Fluminense.' In spring 2020, he co-taught a course on 'Black Lives Matter Brazil/USA' with Mellon visiting professor Dr. Silvio Almeida, which led to an ongoing student project producing an exhibit displayed in Duke's Classroom Building and a remarkable website.
Professor French's research interests include gender, labor and working class history, legal history, politics, race and ethnicity, and global comparative studies. His scholarly work focuses on Brazilian labor history, political culture, and the rise of Lula and the Workers' Party. His October 2020 UNC Press monograph 'Lula and his Politics of Cunning: From Metalworker to President of Brazil' was awarded two prestigious prizes in 2021 and has been the subject of four major academic roundtables across several disciplines, as well as numerous reviews and podcasts.
His academic contributions have been recognized with major fellowships including Fulbright-Hays, Social Science Research Council, National Humanities Center, Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, and Kellogg Institute for International Studies. His scholarly work has been featured in multiple roundtables across several disciplines, including Labor: Studies in Working Class History, American Historical Review, and Latin American Politics & Society.
As an educator, Professor French teaches undergraduate courses on Brazilian History, Modern Latin American History, and the Latin American Wars of Independence. His graduate teaching includes the 'Modern Latin American History' colloquium and a two-semester sequence on 'Afro-Brazilian History and Culture.' His past doctoral advisees have completed dissertations on Bolivia, Brazil (3), Chile, Jamaica & Trinidad and Tobago, Peru, Venezuela, early modern Spain, and southeastern Pacific marine environmental history. He has directed numerous undergraduate theses, eight of which won prizes.
