Kevin Dawson

About the Author

Kevin Dawson is a distinguished historian specializing in the African diaspora and early modern Americas, with a keen focus on the overlooked realms of aquatic culture and resistance. Drawing from extensive archival research across the Atlantic world, his work illuminates the ingenuity of enslaved Africans who harnessed water-based skills—from swimming and diving to boat-building and fishing—to navigate, subvert, and survive oppressive systems. In his acclaimed book, Undercurrents of Power: Aquatic Culture in the African Diaspora (The Early Modern Americas), Dawson vividly reconstructs these submerged histories, revealing how water became both a medium of bondage and a site of empowerment. A professor of history, he continues to explore themes of adaptation and agency in colonial encounters, enriching our understanding of global Black experiences through meticulous scholarship and evocative prose.