Rod McDonald, professor of history

For Dr. Roderick McDonald, professor of history, there is nothing better than talking about a passion of his: Caribbean history.

Last month, he ventured out of the classroom to give three presentations to passengers on board the luxurious Queen Mary 2 as destination lecturer. Leaving from New York City, the Cunard Cruise Lines ship sailed to St. Maarten, Martinique, Barbados, St. Lucia, and St. Thomas. Cruise officials invited Dr. McDonald to lecture because of his reputation as a scholar of Caribbean history and culture. He will give repeat performances on the same ship and cruise line during Christmas and New Year's, where this time the nine-destination "Yuletide in the Caribbean" itinerary includes Aruba, one of the few West Indian islands he has yet to visit.

"The West Indies has a rich and complex history," said McDonald, who in addition to Caribbean history teaches African American, African, Latin American and World history at Rider. "The QM2's passengers come from all over the world, and I even met a couple of Rider alums. The folks who attended my lectures had lots of interesting questions and took different perspectives on the history of the Caribbean."

McDonald lectured on "Our Destination, the Caribbean," "West Indian Peoples and Nations," and "Buccaneers and Pirates of the Caribbean."

"The trip was a lot of fun and the Cunard line deserves commendation for including the lecture series along with the other activities on board ship that entertain and enlighten the passengers," said McDonald. "The islands are more than tourist resorts islands; they occupy a unique place in world history."

A native of Scotland, McDonald's interest in Caribbean history and culture began in the late 1960s while an undergraduate history major at the University of Aberdeen. There he studied the West Indies as a part of the British imperial history, but as a graduate student at the University of Kansas he extended his research in a study of slavery that linked the experiences of slaves in the Caribbean and the United States. His doctoral dissertation was entitled, "Goods and Chattels: The Economy of Slaves on Sugar Plantations in Jamaica and Louisiana." Later, McDonald published a book on The Economy and Material Culture of Slaves, which he followed with a study of slave emancipation in St. Vincent entitled, Between Slavery and Freedom.

Since joining Rider in 1981, McDonald has found various ways, both in and out of the classroom, to introduce students to the Caribbean, and he has also shared his wealth of knowledge with the students of Don Brown, director of the Multicultural Center, and the Rev. Nancy Schluter, Protestant chaplain, who travel to Jamaica every January to perform community service and complete a course of study on the island. "I want people to know how the Caribbean fits into world history," said McDonald, "and to understand the cultures and lifestyles of its inhabitants.

"Here at Rider, we are closer to the islands than we are to Los Angeles or San Francisco," he added. "The peoples of the Caribbean are our near neighbors and I encourage our students to visit a region whose historical connections to the United States are so deeply rooted, and whose exciting and vibrant communities, in islands of spectacular natural beauty, offer so much to the visitor."

This past summer, McDonald was appointed editor of the Journal of the Early Republic, a quarterly publication of the Society for Historians of the Early American Republic (SHEAR), that publishes the best scholarship on the history and culture of the United States in the years of the early republic (1776-1861). Meanwhile, McDonald is at work on his next book, which focuses on the island of Dominica, entitled, The Ethnography and Pornography of Slavery.

Asked when the book will be published, he quickly responded with a saying often heard in Jamaica--"soon come."

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