Robert Carl-Heinz Shell

Robert Carl-Heinz Shell
Born (1949-02-13)13 February 1949
Died 3 February 2015(2015-02-03) (aged 66)
Alma mater University of Cape Town
University of Rochester
Yale University
Thesis “Slavery at the Cape of Good Hope, 1680–1731”

Robert Carl-Heinz Shell (31 Jan 1949 - 3 Feb 2015[1][2]) was a South African author, scholar, and professor of African Studies. He was born in the Cape Province of South Africa and lived in the United States in the 1980s and 1990s. After the fall of apartheid he returned to South Africa. Toward the end of his life he lived in the Western Cape with his wife Sandy Rowoldt Shell, who is the head of the African Studies Library at University of Cape Town.

Professor Shell has attended more than 41 international workshops where he has delivered papers on several topics but notably on slavery, Islam and HIV/AIDS. In September 2004 he delivered the keynote address at the AGM of SANTA (SA National Tuberculosis Association) in Port Elizabeth, South Africa with a talk entitled “Infectious diseases in South Africa: HIV/AIDS and TB, some statistical trends”. He has also appeared in Washington, D.C., where he addressed both the House Select Committee on African affairs and the House Select Committee on International Relations on the global Aids pandemic.

Education

Professor Shell obtained his undergraduate and Honours degrees at University of Cape Town in the 1970s. He then went to the U.S. to complete his master's degree at University of Rochester and in 1986 he completed his PhD at Yale University. For his doctoral studies at Yale, completed in 1986, Shell wrote the dissertation entitled “Slavery at the Cape of Good Hope, 1680–1731” under the advisorship of famed South African historian, Leonard M. Thompson[3]

Teaching positions

2006–2007: Extraordinary Professor of Historical demography in the UWC Statistics Department.
2001–2005: UWC Associate Professor of Statistics
1996–2001: Rhodes University, East London Division, Senior Lecturer
1988–95: Princeton University History Department, Assistant Professor of African History
1988: Oswego, SUNY, Visiting Professor of African History
1986/87: University of California, Santa Barbara: Visiting Lecturer, African History
1983/84: Yale University Teaching Fellowship for expository writing; colonial America
1981: Yale University: South African History (assistant for Prof L M Thompson)
1976/77: East Asian Economic and Demographic History (Prof. Robert Hall)

Professional Positions

2003–: Nelson Mandela Chair of African Studies, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi (6 months)
2003–: Vice President, Demographic Association of Southern Africa (DEMSA)
2001–: Assoc. Prof of Statistics, University of Western Cape
1998–1999: Councillor of Demographic Association of South Africa (DEMSA)
1997–2000: Director of Population Research Unit, Rhodes University (EL)
1996: Lecturer-in-charge: History Department, Rhodes University (EL)
1989–93: Director of African Studies, Princeton University
1991/2: Executive Secretary, Shelby Cullom Davis Center, Princeton University
1989/90: Committee member on Academic Initiatives on South Africa
1989/90: Committee member on Southern Colonialist Search
1989/90: Executive Committee Member, Shelby Cullom Davis Center

Publications

Books

Articles

Reviews

Awards

Quotes

"Robert Shell's account is slightly different. He argues that Christianity's change of heart only applied to baptized slaves, and the issue of whether slaves should be baptized was very contentious as late as 1618 when it was raised at the Synod of Dort, the last meeting of Protestant theologians from Great Britain and the Continent. Although the delegates could not agree on a single policy, Shell maintains, their writings ended or limited the trade in Christian slaves.

References

  1. ↑ "Robert Shell: A tribute - NEWS & ANALYSIS". Politicsweb. 2015-02-05. Retrieved 2016-03-07.
  2. ↑ Bryan Rostron (2015-03-02). "Slavery scholar more feted abroad | Opinion & Analysis". BDlive. Retrieved 2016-03-07.
  3. ↑ "Directory of Dissertations". Historians.org. Retrieved 2016-03-07.
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