Peter A. Coclanis
Ph.D., Albert R. Newsome Professor, History
Adjunct Professor, Economics; Director, Global Research Institute; Faculty Affiliate, Asian Studies; Faculty Affiliate, Peace, War, and Defense
coclanis@unc.edu
Curriculum Vitae
PubMed Publications
CPC Publications
ORCID iD
Peter A. Coclanis is a historian, who is particularly interested in economic history, agricultural history, and demographic history. His research has ranged widely across space and over time—from seventeenth-century South Carolina to twentieth-century Burma. Most of his work in demographic history is in the field of historical anthropometrics, using data on the physical stature of historical populations to get at broader questions relating to biological and material well being.
Coclanis is an economic historian who works on American, Southeast Asian, and global economic history from the 17th century to the present day. He publishes in the fields of agricultural history, economic history/economic development, environmental history, and demographic history. Over the past two decades, he has explored such issues in many publications on Southeast Asia and the U.S. He is currently working on a book-length study on the integration of world markets for rice over the course of the period between 1700 and 1920, several studies on the economic, demographic, and environmental history of Burma/Myanmar and the Greater Mekong Subregion (GMS), and various projects relating to the economic history of the U.S. South. He has presided over three international professional organizations, and is an elected fellow of both the Society of American Historians and the Agricultural History Society. In 2019 he received the Agricultural History Society's Gladys L. Baker Award for lifetime achievements in the field of agricultural history.