Dr. Graeme Mack
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Profile
Graeme Mack is a historian of the United States and the world. At the University of Richmond, he teaches The Global History of Early America, which traces the roots of American society back to Pre-Columbian America and Spanish Conquest of the 15th century. This course examines the transformative global forces that shaped the Early American Republic, such as the transatlantic slave trade, the Protestant Reformation, and the Seven Years' War. He also teaches History of the American Presidency, a class that explores the evolution of the American presidency as an institution. This course explores the pivotal American presidencies and asks how historical precedents transformed the nation's highest office.
As a researcher, his work tends to focus on the early United States and its connections to the China trade. After completing his Ph.D. in the Department of History at the University of California, San Diego in 2022, he began work on a book entitled "Seaborne Sovereignties," which examines American merchants and U.S. officials' efforts to expand American commercial and political influence over strategically important spaces in the Pacific and considers how their multinational and multiracial labor forces both disrupted and reinforced these state-business ambitions. His research has been supported by institutions such as the Huntington Library, the Harvard Business School, and the University of California, as well as organizations like the American Historical Association (AHA), the Organization of American Historians (OAH), the Society of Historians of American Foreign Relations (SHAFR), the Society of Historians of the Early American Republic (SHEAR), the Western Historical Association (WHA), the Omohundro Institute (OIEAHC), and the Rocky Mountain Council of Latin American Studies (RMCLAS).
Originally from Canada, he holds a B.A. in History from the University of British Columbia and an M.A. in History from McGill University. Before beginning college, he played guitar in a band and toured for several years across North America. Before pursuing his doctorate, he worked as a librarian at various colleges in the Canadian West and French-speaking Canada.
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Grants and Fellowships
W. Stull Holt Dissertation Fellowship, Society of Historians of American Foreign Relations (SHAFR)
Assistant Professor, University College Fellow of Early American History, University of Toronto, Canada (declined)
Duncan Gleason Fellow of California Maritime History, Huntington Library, California
UC Institute of Global Conflict and Cooperation (IGCC) Dissertation Fellowship, University of California
IAH Dissertation Writing Workshop Fellowship, UCSD Institute of Arts and Humanities
Robert A. and Barbara Divine Graduate Travel Grant, Society of Historians of American Foreign Relations (SHAFR), New Orleans
2020 Jerry Bentley World History Travel Grant, American Historical Association (AHA), New York City
2019 President’s Travel Fund for Emerging Historians, Organization of American Historians (OAH), Philadelphia
Alfred D. Chandler Jr. Fellowship, Harvard Business School, Massachusetts
Duncan Gleason Fellow of California Maritime History, Andrew W. Mellon Foundation Fellow, Huntington Library, California
Chancellor’s Research Excellence Scholarship (CRES), University of California
Institute of Arts & Humanities Graduate Summer Research Fellowship, University of California, San Diego
Adrian Bantjes Best Graduate Paper Award, The Rocky Mountain Council for Latin American Studies
The Tinker Pre-Dissertation Travel Grant, Tinker Foundation Incorporated (TFI)
Dean of Arts and Humanities Graduate Student Travel Award, University of California, San Diego
Dissertation Fellowship, Academy of American Franciscan History
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Presentations
“Sea Changes in California: American Maritime Merchants, the Hide and Tallow Trade, and the United States’ Expansion to the North Pacific, 1829-1848.” 62nd Western History Association (WHA). San Antonio. 12-15 October 2022.
“Sea Changes in California: American Maritime Merchants, the Hide and Tallow Trade, and Commercial Imperialism in the North Pacific, 1829-1848.” 135th Annual American Historical Association (AHA). Virtual Meeting. 21-27 February 2022.
“‘Now With its Doors of Commerce Thrown Open:’ Chilean Independence, U.S. Merchant Consuls, & the United States’ Expansion to the Pacific, 1810-1823.” 43rd Annual Meeting of SHEAR. Virtual Meeting. 15-18, July 2021.
“‘For I Conceive So Large a Commerce:’ American Whalers, the Hawaiian Islands, & the United States’ Expansion to the Pacific, 1820-1842.” SHAFR 2021 Annual Meeting. Virtual Meeting. 17-20, June 2021.
“‘Our Whaling Fleet Whiten the Pacific Ocean With Its Canvas:’ American Whalers, the Hawaiian Islands, & the United States’ Expansion to the Pacific, 1820-1842.” 135th Annual American Historical Association (AHA) Meeting. Seattle, 7-10, January 2021 (paper accepted).
“‘Now With its Doors of Commerce Thrown Open:’ Chilean Independence, U.S. Commercial Agents, & American Pacific Expansion, 1810-1823.” 42nd Annual Meeting of SHEAR. Philadelphia, 16-19 July 2020 (paper accepted).
“‘For I Conceive So Large a Commerce:’ American Whalers, the Hawaiian Islands, & the United States’ Expansion to the Pacific, 1820-1842.” SHAFR 2020 Annual Meeting. New Orleans, 18-20, June 2020 (paper accepted).
“Boston Merchants, the Otter Fur Trade, and the Creation of the United States’ Global Maritime Economy, 1781-1807.” 134th Annual American Historical Association (AHA) Meeting. New York, 3-6, January 2020.
“‘Now With its Doors of Commerce Thrown Open:’ Chilean Independence, U.S. Commercial Agents, & American Pacific Expansion, 1810-1823.” 59th Annual Western History Association (WHA) Conference. Las Vegas, NV. 16-19, October 2019.
“‘Our Territory on the Pacific:’ The Oregon Question, California, and Political Compromise in the United States, 1822-1848.” Omohundro Institute 25th Annual Conference. Pittsburgh, PA. 13-16 June 2019.
“‘Border Upon the South Sea:’ U.S. Commercial Agents, Chile, and U.S. Pacific Expansion, 1810-1823.” Organization of American Historians 2019 OAH Annual Meeting. Philadelphia, PA. 4-7 April 2019.
“‘Tis Fortunate for Those Who Navigate the Southern Seas:’ Pacific Merchants, Otter Furs and the United States’ Global Maritime Economy, 1781-1807.” Harvard Graduate Student Conference on International History (CON-IH): “The Pacific in the World.” Harvard University. Cambridge, MA. 22-23 March 2018.
“Sea Changes Upon the Land: Pacific Merchants and the Secularization of California’s Mission Lands.” Rocky Mountain Council of Latin American Studies (RMCLAS). Hilton City Center. Salt Lake City, UT. 5-8 April 2017.
“‘Of One and the Same Harmonious Family:’ Euro-American Traders and Californio Rancheros in Pacific California, 1822-1848.” Rocky Mountain Council of Latin American Studies (RMCLAS). Hotel Santa Fe. Santa Fe, NM. 30 March – 2 April 2016.
“‘Of One and the Same Harmonious Family:’ Euro-American Traders and Californio Rancheros in Pacific California, 1822-1848.” Deep LA Conference. Huntington Library. San Marino, CA. 2-3 October 2015.
“‘Promises Solemnly Made and Most Basely Broken:’ U.S. Creditors, Debtor Migrants, and the Texas Revolution.” History in the Making Conference. Concordia University. Montreal, QC. 21-22 March 2014.
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Grants and Fellowships
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Publications
ReviewsGraeme Mack on Jason W. Smith, To Master the Boundless Sea: The U.S. Navy, the Marine Environment, and the Cartography of Empire, H-Environment, H-NET, the Humanities & Social Sciences Online Initiative (June 2021).Graeme Mack on Erika Pérez, Colonial Intimacies: Interethnic Kinship, Sexuality, and Marriage in Southern California 1769-1885, Journal of San Diego History, Vol. 65, no. 3 (Fall 2019).
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