Deborah Neill
Associate Professor
Office: 2162 York Lanes
Phone: 416-736-2100 Ext: 20365
Email: dneill@yorku.ca
Media Requests Welcome
I am a Modern European Historian at York University in Toronto, specializing in the histories of Germany, France, European colonialism in Africa, and the history of colonial medicine. My first book, Networks in Tropical Medicine: Internationalism, Colonialism, and the Rise of a Medical Specialty, explores the ties between European tropical medicine experts across national boundaries, their shared research endeavours in parts of eastern and western Africa in the early 20th century, and their impact on colonial health policies (particularly sleeping sickness). I have also explored the history of food and nutrition in France and its colonies. My current project uses the company John Holt & Co (Liverpool) as a case study to explore the expanding commodity trade and the rise of multinational firms in British, French, Spanish, and German-controlled territories in west-central Africa in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.
My teaching interests are broadly focused on the history of modern Europe and Imperialism since 1789 and includes colonialism, World Wars One and Two, the Holocaust, Modern Germany, Modern France, War, Revolution and Society in the 20th century, and Globalization.
Degrees
PhD, University of TorontoMA, University of Toronto
BA, University of Waterloo
Professional Leadership
Co-Organizer, Joint York-University of Toronto Seminar in French History (with Eric Jennings, Margaret Schotte and William Nelson) 2010-present
Co-organizer, Workshop on German Colonial Capitalism (With Kim Todzi, University of Hamburg and Tristan Oestermann, Humboldt University) May 2021
Research Interests
- John Bullen Dissertation Prize, Canadian Historical Association - 2005
- Hannah Millennium History of Medicine Doctoral Thesis Award, Honourable Mention - 2005
Current Research Projects
-
Summary:
This project uses the company John Holt & Co. to explore broad economic changes in west-central Africa in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.
Description:By the beginning of the 20th century, John Holt & Co. (Liverpool) had plantations, factories, shipping facilities and retail stores across British, German, French and Spanish colonies in west-central Africa. it was a large importer of diverse retail goods and a major exporter of rubber, wood, ivory and other commodities. Along with understanding its transnational endeavours and relationships to multiple governments, in this project I explore the experiences of Africans who worked for or partnered with the company, showing how they faced racial discrimination in the company's culture but were able to find opportunities to innovate and further both their own and the company's goals. In looking at Holt I more broadly examine the development of exploitative practices by western companies in Africa in the 19th and 20th centuries and the way this period fits with the broader history of economic change in modern Western Africa and Europe.
Start Date:
- Month: Apr Year: 2014
End Date:
- Month: Apr Year: 2018
Funders:
Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC)
-
Summary:
This book was published by Stanford University Press in 2012.
Description:The book explores transnational connections between tropical medicine experts as they emerged in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, with special emphasis on cooperation and competition in human trypanosomiasis (sleeping sickness) research. I argue that combating tropical diseases depended on the cooperation of experts across European and African borders, but that this did not lead to notable success in eradicating or curing diseases like sleeping sickness. Indeed, the physicians and officials who developed policies to combat sleeping sickness in Africa before 1914 privileged biomedical research and harsh containment methods that left a painful legacy in many territories. My case studies include what was at the time German East Africa, British Uganda, French Congo and German Cameroon.
Minor Research Grant (York University)
-
Description:
In this project, my goal is to demonstrate how the transnational campaigns against the colonial liquor trade in Africa between the 1880s and 1930s represented an important contributing moment to shaping the character of modern western activist movements in the global south. Many European countries participated in the manufacturing, sale and distribution of liquor to the colonies. Western missionaries, philanthropists and humanitarians were horrified by the extension of this trade. Building on the tactics developed by the anti-slavery campaigners in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, a new generation of activists organized a campaign against colonial government policies, the lucrative European liquor industry, and consumers of high-alcohol content spirits in West and Central Africa. Their focus may have been on alcohol, but their work ultimately highlighted some of the larger systemic problems of colonialism. Yet the solutions they proposed unfairly targeted the consumers of alcohol rather than taking on problems in the industry itself.
SSHRC Small Grants Program
Canadian Centre for German and European Studies (CCGES)
York Internal Grant - Minor Research Grant
York Conference Travel Fund
Current Courses
| Term | Course Number | Section | Title | Type |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Winter 2025 | AP/HIST3844 3.0 | M | WW II and its Aftermath: 1944-1949 | LECT |
| Fall/Winter 2024 | AP/HIST2920 6.0 | A | The First Global War | LECT |
I am a Modern European Historian at York University in Toronto, specializing in the histories of Germany, France, European colonialism in Africa, and the history of colonial medicine. My first book, Networks in Tropical Medicine: Internationalism, Colonialism, and the Rise of a Medical Specialty, explores the ties between European tropical medicine experts across national boundaries, their shared research endeavours in parts of eastern and western Africa in the early 20th century, and their impact on colonial health policies (particularly sleeping sickness). I have also explored the history of food and nutrition in France and its colonies. My current project uses the company John Holt & Co (Liverpool) as a case study to explore the expanding commodity trade and the rise of multinational firms in British, French, Spanish, and German-controlled territories in west-central Africa in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.
My teaching interests are broadly focused on the history of modern Europe and Imperialism since 1789 and includes colonialism, World Wars One and Two, the Holocaust, Modern Germany, Modern France, War, Revolution and Society in the 20th century, and Globalization.
Degrees
PhD, University of TorontoMA, University of Toronto
BA, University of Waterloo
Professional Leadership
Co-Organizer, Joint York-University of Toronto Seminar in French History (with Eric Jennings, Margaret Schotte and William Nelson) 2010-present
Co-organizer, Workshop on German Colonial Capitalism (With Kim Todzi, University of Hamburg and Tristan Oestermann, Humboldt University) May 2021
Research Interests
Awards
- John Bullen Dissertation Prize, Canadian Historical Association - 2005
- Hannah Millennium History of Medicine Doctoral Thesis Award, Honourable Mention - 2005
Current Research Projects
-
Summary:
This project uses the company John Holt & Co. to explore broad economic changes in west-central Africa in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.
Description:By the beginning of the 20th century, John Holt & Co. (Liverpool) had plantations, factories, shipping facilities and retail stores across British, German, French and Spanish colonies in west-central Africa. it was a large importer of diverse retail goods and a major exporter of rubber, wood, ivory and other commodities. Along with understanding its transnational endeavours and relationships to multiple governments, in this project I explore the experiences of Africans who worked for or partnered with the company, showing how they faced racial discrimination in the company's culture but were able to find opportunities to innovate and further both their own and the company's goals. In looking at Holt I more broadly examine the development of exploitative practices by western companies in Africa in the 19th and 20th centuries and the way this period fits with the broader history of economic change in modern Western Africa and Europe.
Project Type: FundedRole: Principal Investigator
Start Date:
- Month: Apr Year: 2014
End Date:
- Month: Apr Year: 2018
Funders:
Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC)
-
Summary:
This book was published by Stanford University Press in 2012.
Description:The book explores transnational connections between tropical medicine experts as they emerged in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, with special emphasis on cooperation and competition in human trypanosomiasis (sleeping sickness) research. I argue that combating tropical diseases depended on the cooperation of experts across European and African borders, but that this did not lead to notable success in eradicating or curing diseases like sleeping sickness. Indeed, the physicians and officials who developed policies to combat sleeping sickness in Africa before 1914 privileged biomedical research and harsh containment methods that left a painful legacy in many territories. My case studies include what was at the time German East Africa, British Uganda, French Congo and German Cameroon.
Project Type: FundedRole: Author
-
Project Type:
Funded
Funders:
Minor Research Grant (York University)
-
Description:
In this project, my goal is to demonstrate how the transnational campaigns against the colonial liquor trade in Africa between the 1880s and 1930s represented an important contributing moment to shaping the character of modern western activist movements in the global south. Many European countries participated in the manufacturing, sale and distribution of liquor to the colonies. Western missionaries, philanthropists and humanitarians were horrified by the extension of this trade. Building on the tactics developed by the anti-slavery campaigners in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, a new generation of activists organized a campaign against colonial government policies, the lucrative European liquor industry, and consumers of high-alcohol content spirits in West and Central Africa. Their focus may have been on alcohol, but their work ultimately highlighted some of the larger systemic problems of colonialism. Yet the solutions they proposed unfairly targeted the consumers of alcohol rather than taking on problems in the industry itself.
Project Type: FundedFunders:
SSHRC Small Grants Program
Canadian Centre for German and European Studies (CCGES)
York Internal Grant - Minor Research Grant
York Conference Travel Fund
All Publications
Current Courses
| Term | Course Number | Section | Title | Type |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Winter 2025 | AP/HIST3844 3.0 | M | WW II and its Aftermath: 1944-1949 | LECT |
| Fall/Winter 2024 | AP/HIST2920 6.0 | A | The First Global War | LECT |
