DFW Immigration Research
Dennis
D. Cordell, PhD
Southern Methodist University
Phone:
214-768-2203
Fax: 214-768-2511
Email:
dcordell@smu.edu
DENNIS CORDELL
joined the faculty of SMU in 1977 where he is now Professor of History. For the
past decade or so, he has also served as Associate Vice Provost and then
Associate Dean for General Education. He is also Adjunct Professor of
Anthropology at SMU. For some years, he was also
Adjunct Professor of Demography at the Université de Montréal.
Cordell has
been interested in the history of migration in one form or another throughout
his scholarly career. His earliest research focused on the slave trade from
Central Africa to the Nile basin and across the Sahara in the nineteenth and
early twentieth centuries, leading to the publication of
Dar al-Kuti: The Last Years of the
Transsaharan Slave Trade (1985). Shortly thereafter, he joined with the late
Joel W. Gregory and others to launch research on African historical demography.
Early on, this endeavor produced foundational articles, a major bibliography,
and two essay collections: See, among others, “Historical Demography and
Demographic History in Africa: Theoretical and Methodological Considerations,”
and “Earlier African Historical Demographies,” in
Canadian Journal of African Studies/Revue
canadienne des
études
africaines
(1980 and 1989), with Joel Gregory;
African
Population and Capitalism: Historical Perspectives
(1987, 1994), co-edited with Joel Gregory; “African Historical Demography in the
Years since Edinburgh” in History in Africa (2000); and “African Historical Demography in the
Postmodern and Postcolonial Eras,” in The
Demographics of Empire , a collection co-edited with Karl Ittmann and Greg
Maddox (In press).
More recently, Cordell has focused
more on the histories of African migration in the twentieth and twenty-first
centuries, co-authoring a monograph with Victor Piché
entitled Hoe and Wage: A Social History of a Circular Migration System in
West Africa, 1900-1975. He has also studied the history of Malian migrants
in France, publishing three essays with Carolyn Sargent: “Polygamy, disrupted
reproduction and the state: Malian migrants in Paris, France,” Social Science
and Medicine (2003); “Islam, Identity and Gender in Daily Life among Malians
in Paris: the Burdens are Easier to Bear, ” in L’Islam politique au sud du
Sahara: Identités, discours et enjeux, Muriel Gomez-Perez (editor) (2005);
and “The Second Diaspora and the Global Economy: Three Sahelians in France” in
The Human Tradition in Modern Africa, Dennis Cordell (editor) (In press).
He also edited with Jane Elder, and wrote the introduction to The New Dallas:
Immigrants, Community Institutions, and Cultural Diversity. A Collection of
Student Papers.
Cordell has
served as both Book Review Editor and French Editor for the
Canadian Journal of African Studies/Revue
canadienne des études africaines. He has also been on the editorial board of
The International Journal of African
Historical Studies.
PUBLICATIONS ON DFW IMMIGRATION RESEARCH
“Muslim Ballot Box Barbeque: Muslim
and National Identities among Nigerian and Indian Immigrants in Dallas/Fort
Worth, Texas after September 11,”
Diversité urbaine 8, 2 (2008), In press.
“Discriminación e
integración: La experiencia de inmigrantes mexicanos y nigerianos en el norte de
Texas (2001-2005).” In
Hispanos en
Estados Unidos, inmigrantes en España: ¿amenaza o nueva civilización?
Tomas
Calvo Buezas (editor). Madrid: Los Libros de la Catarata, 2006, 117-143.
With Manuel Garcia y Griego.
“Entreprises,
immigrés et statuts d’immigration: trois entrepreneurs nigérians à Dallas/Fort
Worth, Texas.” In
Entreprises en mouvement. Migrants,
pratiques entrepreneuriales et diversités culturelles dans l’espace et le temps,
E. Guerassimoff, C. Maitte, I. Mande, M. Martini and D. Terrier (editors).
Valenciennes: Presses Universitaires de Valenciennes, In press [2008], 357-384.
UNPUBLISHED CONFERENCE PAPERS
“Muslim Ballot Box Barbeque: Muslim and National Identities
among Nigerian and Indian Immigrants in Dallas/Fort Worth
Texas after September 11,” Canadian Association of African Studies/Association
canadienne des études africaines, Toronto, May 2007.
“Enterprise, Education, Family, and
Immigration Status: Three Nigerian Businesses in Dallas/Fort Worth, Texas
(USA),” International Economic History Conference, University of Helsinki,
August 2006.
“Paradoxes of Immigrant Incorporation: Promises and
Prohibitions of Income, Education, Perceived Discrimination, and Accent among
Nigerians in Dallas/Fort Worth, Texas (USA),” Africa Conference 2006: Movements,
Migrations, and Displacements in Africa, The University of Texas at Austin,
March 2006.
“Discrimination
and Integration: The Experience of Mexican and Nigerian Immigrants in North
Texas, 2001-2005,” Symposium Hispanos en USA/Inmigrantes en Espana: ¿amenaza o
nueva civilizacion? Universidad Complutense de Madrid, 2005 With Manuel Garcia y
Griego.
“The Integration of Nigerian and Mexican Immigrants in Dallas/Fort Worth, Texas,” International Union for the Scientific Study of Population,” Tours (France), 2005. With Manual Garcia y Griego.