Jesse Olsavsky

He is a historian who focuses largely on the history of slavery, abolitionism, and their legacies. He teaches courses on American history, American political institutions and Pan-African thought. He was co-director of the Freedom Lab, an interdisciplinary faculty-student research center devoted to the study of un-freedom and liberation in the modern world. He is also co-director of the Gender Studies Initiative, which organizes academic lectures, conferences, discussions, as well as student research on the topics of Gender, Feminism, and Sexuality.

His First book is titled The Most Absolute Abolition’: Runaways, Vigilance Committees, and the Rise of Revolutionary Abolitionism, 1835-1861 (LSU Press 2022), which was a finalist for the Harriet Tubman Book Prize.

He is currently working on my second book, tentatively titled “The Tradition of Frederick Douglass: Pan-Africanism and Self-Determination, 1817-1945.” The book is both a reinterpretation of Douglass’ relationships to Africa and the Caribbean, as well as a study of the ways numerous African and Caribbean writers, newspaper editors, political leaders, and ordinary people interpreted Douglass’ thought, making him an icon of early Pan-Africanism.

His current and past research has been funded by such institutions as the ACLS, the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, the National Endowment for the Humanities, Yale University, and the University of Connecticut Humanities Institute.

He has published essays on the contributions of enslaved and free women activists to abolitionism and feminism, on underground activism in the life of Frederick Douglass, on runaway slaves, on the antislavery roots of prison/police abolition, and on the influence of abolitionist political theory in the Pan-African, anti-colonial thought of W.E.B. Dubois.

Jesse Olsavsky是一位专注于奴隶制、废奴主义及其历史遗产研究的历史学家。他教授美国历史、美国政治制度以及泛非思想相关课程。他曾担任“自由研究室”（Freedom Lab）的联合主任，这是一所跨学科的师生学术研究中心，致力于研究现代世界中的“不自由”与解放。他同时也是“性别研究项目”（Gender Studies Initiative）的联合主任，该项目主办学术讲座、会议和讨论，并支持学生围绕性别、女性主义及性研究主题进行学术研究。

他的第一本书为《“最彻底的废奴”：逃奴、警戒委员会与革命废奴主义的兴起，1835-1861》（The Most Absolute Abolition’: Runaways, Vigilance Committees, and the Rise of Revolutionary Abolitionism, 1835-1861，路易斯安那州立大学出版社，2022年），该书入围哈丽雅特·塔布曼图书奖（Harriet Tubman Book Prize）的决赛名单。

他目前正在撰写第二本书，暂定名为《弗雷德里克·道格拉斯的传统：泛非主义与自决，1817-1945》（The Tradition of Frederick Douglass: Pan-Africanism and Self-Determination, 1817-1945）。该书将重新诠释道格拉斯与非洲及加勒比地区的关系，同时研究众多非洲与加勒比地区作家、新闻编辑、政治领袖及普通民众对道格拉斯思想的解读，探讨他们如何将道格拉斯塑造为早期泛非主义的象征人物。

他目前和过去的研究获得了美国学术团体协会（ACLS）、施翁堡黑人文化研究中心（Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture）、美国国家人文基金会（National Endowment for the Humanities）、耶鲁大学以及康涅狄格大学人文学科研究所（University of Connecticut Humanities Institute）等机构的资助。

他发表过多篇论文，内容涵盖被奴役与自由女性活动家对于废奴主义和女性主义的贡献；弗雷德里克·道格拉斯生命中的地下抗争活动；逃奴问题；废奴运动思想在监狱与警察制度废除理论中的根源；以及废奴主义政治理论在W.E.B.杜波依斯（W.E.B. Du Bois）的泛非主义与反殖民思想中的影响。