Rick Halpern

Rick Halpern is a social historian whose work has focused on race and labour in a number of national and international contexts.  He has written about meat and meatpacking, sugar and plantations, visual culture, and regionalism.  Currently he is at work on two major projects: a book on race and class in 20th century photography, and a study of the year 1919 in Chicago. He is the Bissell-Heyd Chair of American Studies and, until July 2015, was the Dean at UTSC. Prior to that he was the Principal of New College on the St. George campus. Professor Halpern works with graduate students in a number of fields, especially labour and working class history. He is currently the Director of the Centre for the Study of the United States at the University's Munk School of Global Affairs and Public Policy.