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Eugene Charles Fanning, Ph.D.

Assistant Professor of History

Fanning

I aim to demonstrate the value of historical analysis as a means for students to understand the past and its relevance today, bring order and narrative to new information, reconsider fixed beliefs, and better understand different cultures and communities. In the classroom, I seek to challenge students to think critically and effectively communicate their ideas, connect my teaching to relevant community and global problems, and equip students with conceptual tools that will empower them as they build their lives and careers in an often uncertain world.

-Eugene Charles Fanning

Ordway

Biography

I am a labor historian with broad research interests that extend across borders and historical subfields, such as business, immigration, and environmental history. My current research examines the 20th-century transformation of South Florida into a hemispheric hub for industrial agriculture and migration, the region’s influence in shaping markets, and the trajectory of Florida's farmworkers’ movement. Before my appointment at Florida Southern, I worked in research positions in organized labor and the UN system and taught at the University of Florida. I hold a doctorate in History from the University of Maryland, College Park and an MA from Georgetown University. I started my academic journey as an undergraduate at Florida Southern College and I am thrilled to return to campus in this role and to serve at an institution and community that made me into the person and scholar I am today. Go Mocs!

Education

Doctor of Philosophy in History, The University of Maryland, College Park, 2024 . Dissertation title: “Empire of the Everglades”: Industrial Agriculture, Migrant Workers, and the Nature of the Modern Food System Master of Arts in Latin American Studies, Georgetown University, January 2012. Bachelor of Arts in History and Spanish, Florida Southern College, 2010.

Awards

Herbert G. Gutman Prize for Outstanding Dissertation, Labor and Working-Class History Association E.B. and Jean Smith Prize in Political History, University of Maryland University Flagship Fellowship, University of Maryland Marshall T. Meyer Human Rights Research Grant, Duke University Sam Fishman Travel Grant, Wayne State University Chase Family Grant, University of Florida.

Publications

  • “From the ILO to Intergovernmentalism: The Ideological Roots of the Modern Global Migration Governance Regime,” in Global Labor Migration: New Directions co-edited by Eileen Boris, Heidi Gottfried, Julie Greene, and Joo-Cheong Tham (Champaign, IL: University of Illinois Press, 2022).
  • "Global Labor Migration: Shifting Governance Mechanisms, Rights Deficits, and the Search for Order," with Nicola Piper. Labor: Studies in Working-Class History 18, No. 1, March 2021.
  • "The Everglades Labor Camp and the Farmworkers’ Movement in Florida." Activist History Review, April 2019. The CLEAN Carwash Initiative: Building Worker Power and Fighting Austerity through Community and Workplace Organizing” with Ana Avendaño. Labor Studies Journal 39, No. 2, June 2014.
  • “Immigration Policy Reform in the United States: Reframing the Enforcement Discourse to Fight Human Trafficking and Promote Shared Prosperity,” with Ana Avendaño. Anti-Trafficking Review, Issue 2, September 2013.

Projects

My monograph “Empire of the Everglades” (working title) is currently under advance contract with the University of Illinois Press, Working Class in American History Series.