Joshua Humphreys
Joshua Humphreys is founding President of Croatan Institute, an independent institute for advanced social and environmental research and engagement, and a former Associate Fellow at Tellus Institute. Previously, he taught at Harvard University, was a scholar-in-residence at the Rockefeller Archive Center, and served as an Aspen Environment Forum Scholar. He currently serves on the Advisory Board of the Dwight Hall SRI Fund at Yale University, the Advisory Council of the Responsible Endowments Coalition, and the Board of Advisors of the Coalition for Responsible Investment at Harvard. He holds a PhD in History from New York University.
GTI Contributions
Decolonizing the Empire of Cotton
October 2015
Sven Beckert’s Empire of Cotton offers a magisterial history of cotton’s role in the development of modern capitalism. However, it is a partial story: the bright light it shines on the “empire” and its masters occludes the array of social forces and actors working to tame or dismantle the emergent system.