dneill


Deborah Neill

Photo of Deborah Neill

Department of History

Associate Professor

Office: 2162 York Lanes
Phone: 416-736-2100 Ext: 20365
Email: dneill@yorku.ca

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I am an Associate Professor of Modern European History at York University in Toronto. I focus on the history of European imperialism in Africa, the history of the two World Wars, and the history of colonial medicine. My first book, Networks in Tropical Medicine: Internationalism, Colonialism, and the Rise of a Medical Specialty, was published by Stanford University Press in 2012.

I have two current projects: my manuscript-in-progress explores the expansion of the commodities and retail firm John Holt & Co (Liverpool) in non-British colonies (French Equatorial Africa, Spanish Equatorial Guinea, and German Kamerun) in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. I am interested in the relationship of the company to foreign governments, the expansion of their regional trade in the Gulf of Guinea, and the experiences of their European and African employees.

My second project explores aspects of the First World War in Cameroun. I have articles in progress on African telegraphers, guides, and spies who assisted the British; the experiences of John Holt & Co. agents and traders during the war; and the way that John Holt & Co.'s business was impacted by the war and the aftermath, when the territory became a Mandate under the League of Nations, controlled by the British and French governments.

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.

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Degrees

PhD, University of Toronto
MA, 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

History , Globalization, Modern Europe, History of Colonialism, History of Medicine, History of Modern warfare