Robert Korstad
Professor Emeritus of Public Policy
Robert Korstad is Emeritus Professor of Public Policy and History at Duke University. He received his B.A. and PhD from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
His research interests include twentieth century U. S. history, labor history, African American history, and contemporary social policy.
His publications include: Fragile Democracy: The Struggle Over Race and Voting Rights in North Carolina (coauthor, University of North Carolina Press, 2020); To Right These Wrongs: The North Carolina Fund and the Battle to End Poverty and Inequality in 1960s America (coauthor, University of North Carolina Press, 2010); Civil Rights Unionism: Tobacco Workers and the Struggle for Democracy in the Mid-Twentieth-Century South (University of North Carolina Press, 2003); Remembering Jim Crow: African Americans Talk About Life in the Segregated South (coeditor, The New Press, 2001); Like a Family: The Making of a Southern Cotton Mill World (coauthor, University of North Carolina Press, revised edition, 2000).
His research interests include twentieth century U. S. history, labor history, African American history, and contemporary social policy.
His publications include: Fragile Democracy: The Struggle Over Race and Voting Rights in North Carolina (coauthor, University of North Carolina Press, 2020); To Right These Wrongs: The North Carolina Fund and the Battle to End Poverty and Inequality in 1960s America (coauthor, University of North Carolina Press, 2010); Civil Rights Unionism: Tobacco Workers and the Struggle for Democracy in the Mid-Twentieth-Century South (University of North Carolina Press, 2003); Remembering Jim Crow: African Americans Talk About Life in the Segregated South (coeditor, The New Press, 2001); Like a Family: The Making of a Southern Cotton Mill World (coauthor, University of North Carolina Press, revised edition, 2000).
Current Appointments & Affiliations
- Professor Emeritus of Public Policy, Sanford School of Public Policy, Duke University 2020
- Bass Fellow, Sanford School of Public Policy, Duke University 2012
Contact Information
- 112 Sanford Inst Bldg, Durham, NC 27708
- Box 90245, Durham, NC 27708-0245
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rkorstad@duke.edu
(919) 613-7335
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Bass Fellows Research Summary
- Background
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Education, Training, & Certifications
- Ph.D., University of North Carolina - Chapel Hill 1987
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Previous Appointments & Affiliations
- Professor in the Sanford School of Public Policy, Sanford School of Public Policy, Duke University 2009 - 2020
- Professor in the Department of History, History, Trinity College of Arts & Sciences 2014 - 2016
- Associate Director of the Samuel DuBois Cook Center on Social Equity, Sanford School of Public Policy, Duke University 2015 - 2016
- Director of the Initiative on Poverty and Social Justice, Sanford School of Public Policy, Duke University 2015 - 2016
- Professor in the Department of History, History, Trinity College of Arts & Sciences 2010 - 2012
- Kevin D. Gorter Professor of Public Policy, Sanford School of Public Policy, Duke University 2007 - 2012
- Associate Professor of History, History, Trinity College of Arts & Sciences 2004 - 2009
- Associate Professor of Public Policy Studies, Sanford School of Public Policy, Duke University 2001 - 2009
- Assistant Professor of Public Policy Studies, Sanford School of Public Policy, Duke University 1994 - 2001
- Assistant Professor of History, History, Trinity College of Arts & Sciences 1997 - 2000
- Visiting Assistant Professor, Sanford School of Public Policy, Duke University 1989 - 1994
- Recognition
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In the News
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JUL 2, 2021 -
NOV 24, 2019 -
JUN 18, 2019 -
OCT 9, 2018 Bull City 150 -
DEC 11, 2017 -
AUG 11, 2017 -
MAR 28, 2017 Sanford School of Public Policy -
JUN 18, 2015 WERE-Cleveland’s “America’s Work Force -
JUN 18, 2015 WERE-Cleveland’s “America’s Work Force” -
JUN 3, 2015 -
JUN 3, 2015 Duke Today -
MAY 12, 2015 the News & Observer -
MAY 12, 2015 The News & Observer -
MAY 6, 2015 -
DEC 30, 2014 Durham News -
SEP 3, 2014 -
APR 18, 2014 High Point Enterprise -
NOV 19, 2013 -
NOV 13, 2013 WUNC Radio
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Awards & Honors
- Senior Fellow. Kenan Institute for Ethics. March 2010
- Faculty Fellow. Social Science Research Institute. 2008
- Charles S. Sydnor Award. Southern Historical Association. 2004
- H. L. Mitchell Award. Southern Historical Association. 2004
- LIBERTY LEGACY FOUNDATION AWARD. Organization of American Historians. 2004
- Fellowships for University Teachers. National Endowment for the Humanities. 1990
- Albert J. Beveridge Award. American Historical Association. 1988
- MERLE CURTI AWARD. Organization of American Historians. 1988
- Expertise
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Subject Headings
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Global Scholarship
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Research
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Teaching
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- Research
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Selected Grants
- Voting Rights and the Expansion of Democracy in America: Who Made Possible One Person, One Vote awarded by National Endowment for the Humanities 2017 - 2020
- Bull City 150 awarded by North Carolina Humanities Council 2018 - 2019
- Challenging the Master Narrative of the Civil Rights Movement awarded by National Endowment for the Humanities 2017 - 2019
- J. Kirk Felsman Program on Children in Adversity: Felsman Fellowships awarded by Bernard Van Leer Foundation 2014 - 2016
- Fund for Social Entrepreneurship awarded by Mary Duke Biddle Foundation 1998 - 2001
- Hart Leadership Fellows Program awarded by Josiah Charles Trent Memorial Foundation 1996
- Publications & Artistic Works
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Selected Publications
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Books
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Korstad, R. R., and J. L. Leloudis. To right these wrongs: The North Carolina Fund and the battle to end poverty and inequality in 1960s America, 2010.
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Korstad, Robert Rodgers. Civil Rights Unionism: Tobacco Workers and the Struggle for Democracy in the Mid-Twentieth-Century South. Univ of North Carolina Press, 2003.
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Chafe, William H., Raymond Gavins, and Robert Korstad. Remembering Jim Crow: African Americans Talk About Life in the Segregated South. New Press, 2001.
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Chafe, William H., Raymond Gavins, and Robert Korstad. Remembering Jim Crow: African Americans Talk About Life in the Segregated South. New Press, 2001.
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Korstad, Robert, and Lu Ann Jones. Like a Family: The Making of a Southern Cotton Mill World. Univ of North Carolina Press, 2000.
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Korstad, Robert Rodgers. Dreaming of a Time: The School of Public Health, The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, 1940-1990, 1990.
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Academic Articles
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Korstad, Robert. “Reformers to Radicals: The Appalachian Volunteers and the War on Poverty.” Journal of Southern History 76, no. 3 (2010): 789–90.Link to Item
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Korstad, R. R. “Civil Rights Unionism and the Black Freedom Struggle.” American Communist History 8, no. 2 (December 2008): 255–58.
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Korstad, R. R. “Child Labor.” Tar Heel Junior Historian 39 (October 1999): 28–30.
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James Leloudis, M. V. P. “Citizen Soldiers: The North Carolina Volunteers and the War on Poverty.” Law and Contemporary Problems 62 (1999): 177–97.
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Griffin, L. J., and R. R. Korstad. “Historical inference and event-structure analysis.” International Review of Social History 43, no. 6 (January 1, 1998): 145–65. https://doi.org/10.1017/s0020859000115135.Full Text
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Griffin, Larry J. “Class as Race and Gender: Making and Breaking a Labor Union in the Jim Crow South.” Social Science History 19 (December 1995): 425–54.
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Korstad, R. R. “Documentary projects for refugee and displaced children in Southern Africa.” Journal of Social Development in Africa 8, no. 2 (January 1, 1993): 61–72.
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Korstad, R. “Response: The Possibilities for Racial Egalitarianism: Context Matters.” International Labor and Working Class History 44 (January 1, 1993): 41–44. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0147547900012205.Full Text
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KORSTAD, R. “THE POSSIBILITIES FOR RACIAL EGALITARIANISM, CONTEXT MATTERS.” International Labor and Working Class History, no. 44 (1993): 41–44.Link to Item
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Fee, E., and R. R. Korstad. “Women health workers: past and present.” American Journal of Public Health 82, no. 2 (February 1992): 165–66. https://doi.org/10.2105/ajph.82.2.165.Full Text
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Fee, E., and R. R. Korstad. “Understanding history to shape the future - The new editors' vision.” American Journal of Public Health 81, no. 6 (January 1, 1991): 781–82. https://doi.org/10.2105/AJPH.81.6.781.Full Text
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Korstad, R. R. “Fighting for Our Lives: The School of Public Health Marks 50 Years of Change and Challenge.” Carolina Alumni Review 78 (October 1989): 50–57.
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Korstad, Robert, and Nelson Lichtenstein. “Opportunities Found and Lost: Labor, Radicals, and the Early Civil Rights Movement.” The Journal of American History 75, no. 3 (December 1988): 786–786. https://doi.org/10.2307/1901530.Full Text
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Hall, Jacquelyn Dowd, Robert Korstad, and James Leloudis. “Cotton Mill People: Work, Community, and Protest in the Textile South, 1880-1940.” The American Historical Review 91, no. 2 (April 1986): 245–245. https://doi.org/10.2307/1858134.Full Text
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Book Sections
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Korstad, R. “Curing my historical schizophrenia.” In Becoming Southern Writers: Essays in Honor of Charles Joyner, 135–38, 2016.
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Hall, J. D., R. Korstad, and J. Leloudis. “Cotton mill people: Work, community, and Protest in the Textile South, 1880-1940.” In The Intersection of Work and Family Life, 497–538, 2013.
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Korstad, R. “Could History Repeat Itself? The Prospects for a Second Reconstruction in Post-World War II South Carolina,.” In Toward the Meeting of the Waters: Currents in the Civil Rights Movement of South Carolina during the Twentieth Century. University of South Carolina Press, 2008.
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Other Articles
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Korstad, R. “The color of work: The struggle for civil rights in the Southern paper industry, 1945-1980.” Journal of Southern History, February 2003.Link to Item
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Korstad, R. “A medical investigation.” Science (New York, N.Y.), March 1991. https://doi.org/10.1126/science.251.5000.1507.Full Text
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Korstad, Robert, and Nannie M. Tilley. “The R. J. Reynolds Tobacco Company.” Technology and Culture. JSTOR, July 1986. https://doi.org/10.2307/3105412.Full Text
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- Scholarly, Clinical, & Service Activities
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Presentations & Appearances
- North Carolina's Long Civil Rights Movement.. January 13, 2012 2012
- The Battle Against Poverty: Writing a History of the North Carolina Fund. August 31, 2010 2010
- To Right These Wrongs: Teaching the Politics of Poverty and Inequality in 1960s America. May 1, 2010 2010
- From the Cotton Fields to the Cotton Club: The African American Diaspora in the Interwar Years. March 20, 2010 2010
- Like a Family: Southern Textile Towns”. May 15, 2008 2008
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Outreach & Engaged Scholarship
- Bass Connections Faculty Team Leader. Documenting Durham's Health History: Understanding the Roots of Health Disparities. 2018 - 2019 2018 - 2019
- DukeEngage Program Leader . Race and justice in the post-apartheid era. May 2017 - July 2017 2017
- Bass Connections Faculty Team Member. Education and Rural Entrepreneurship in Appalachia. August 2014 - May 2015 2014 - 2015
- Bass Connections Faculty Team Member. Education, Poverty and Economic Inequality in Rural Appalachia. August 2013 - May 2014 2013 - 2014
- Instructor. DukeEngage in South Africa - Cape Town. 2010 2010
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