David R. Roediger

David Roediger
  • Foundation Distinguished Professor

Contact Info

Office Phone:
785-864-2309
Bailey Hall, room #213

Biography —

David Roediger is the Foundation Professor of American Studies at University of Kansas where he teaches and writes on race and class in the United States. Educated through college at public schools in Illinois, he completed doctoral work at Northwestern University. His recent books include Seizing Freedom: Slave Emancipation and Liberty for All, How Race Survived U.S. History, and (with Elizabeth Esch) The Production of Difference. His older writings on race, immigration, and working class history include The Wages of Whiteness and Working toward Whiteness.

Research —

Professor Roediger's work focuses on race and class in the U.S. His current project is a history of the middle class from 1830 until the present.

Research interests:

  • labor
  • race
  • immigration
  • social movements

Teaching —

Professor Roediger offers a variety of graduate and undergraduate courses on literature, popular culture, work, gender, and race. All have the teaching of writing as a central goal.

Teaching interests:

  • Labor
  • Slavery
  • Management
  • Race

Selected Publications —

Roediger, David R. 2020. The Short, Unhappy History of Saving the Middle Class. Books. OR Books.
Roediger, David R. 2016. “Whiteness and Race.” Book Chapters. In Oxford Handbook of American Immigration and Ethnicity, edited by Ronald Bayor, 197–212. New York: Oxford University Press. http://www.oxfordhandbooks.com/view/10.1093/oxfordhb/9780199766031.001.0001/oxfordhb-9780199766031-e-012?rskey=BCOPS4&result=1.
Roediger, David R. 2013. “Learning About Whiteness and Race in the Immigration History of the United States.” Book Chapters. In Oxford Handbook of Immigration History, edited by Ronald Bayor. Oxford University Press.
Roediger, David R., and Elizabeth Esch. 2012. The Production of Difference: Race and the Management of Labor in U.S. History. Books. New York, NY: Oxford University Press.
Roediger, David R. 2011. “Notes on Morrison, Baldwin, and the Art of Nonfiction.” Other.
Roediger, David R. 2009. “‘One Symptom of Originality’: Race and the Management of Labor in U.S. History.” Journal Articles. Historical Materialism 17: 3–43.

Service —

In 2015 and 2016 Professor Roediger is president of the American Studies Association.