Rice's early global impact topic of lecture

(THOUSAND OAKS, Calif. – Oct. 26, 2016) An expert in economic history will discuss the impact of rice becoming a global market phenomenon in the 18th century during a free lecture at California Lutheran University.

Peter A. Coclanis, director of the Global Research Institute at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, will present “The Globalization of Agriculture: A Cautionary Note from the Rice Trade” at 7 p.m. Thursday, Nov. 10, in Ullman 100/101 on the Thousand Oaks campus.

In the talk, Coclanis will make a case for rice representing a global market phenomenon in the 18th and 19th centuries, predating modern globalization. The pursuit of rice as a commodity linked the East with the West in the 18th century. In the United States, rice became the main agricultural crop of South Carolina, grown by enslaved Africans whose horticultural knowledge made them invaluable. In his presentation, Coclanis explores the economic, historical and social impacts of the “first grain” of 18th- and 19th-century commerce.

Coclanis is the Albert R. Newsome Distinguished Professor of History at UNC-Chapel Hill and serves as an adjunct professor in the Department of Economics and a faculty affiliate in the Department of Asian Studies. He is currently investigating the creation of integrated world markets for tropical and semi-tropical commodities with a special emphasis on rice. The project has taken him to archives and rice paddies all over the world.

He is the author of the 1989 book “The Shadow of a Dream: Economic Life and Death in the South Carolina Low Country, 1670-1920” and the 2006 book “Time’s Arrow, Time’s Cycle: Globalization in Southeast Asia Over La Longue Durée.” He has also written more than 150 scholarly articles, essays and book reviews.

Coclanis is the former president of several professional organizations including the Historical Society and the Agricultural History Society, and he received a lifetime achievement award and concurrent professorship from the Chinese Ministry of Agriculture. In 2005, he held the Sir Thomas Stafford Raffles Distinguished Professorship in History at the National University of Singapore.

The Chicago native earned two master’s degrees and a doctorate from Columbia University.

The Organization of American Historians and Cal Lutheran’s Department of History and Alpha Xi Psi Chapter of Phi Alpha Theta History Honor Society are sponsoring the event. For more information, contact assistant professor Sam Claussen at sclaussen@callutheran.edu.