Yale University

Graduate Student, History

Other Affiliations: Universidad de los Andes (Colombia), Departamento de Historia

About

I work on colonial Latin American history. I received a B.A. and M.A. in History from the Universidad de los Andes, Bogotá. After a very short experience as a High School teacher, I spent some time working on exhibitions and cultural projects at the Biblioteca Luis Ángel Arango (Colombia's largest library system) and as graduate studies coordinator of the history department at Universidad de los Andes.

In September 2011 I joined the PhD in History at Yale University. My dissertation project intends to study how the circulation of certain commodities between 1550 and 1700, such as silver, salt, and textiles, speaks of cultural contact and power relations between indigenous, African, and Spanish groups in the New Kingdom of Granada (present day Colombia). I am particularly interested in the cultural negotiations involved in the everyday workings of colonial institutions and labor systems. I am also concerned with the ways in which Andean preconquest economic networks were resignified and articulated into transatlantic economies and in which Old World animals, plants and products were appropriated in local contexts and integrated into native economies. In short, my dissertation project seeks to articulate economic and cultural history in ways that reveal the middle ground of alliances, conflicts and negotiations between native economies, slave populations and imperial systems.

Previous research includes explorations on the interactions between Spanish encomenderos and Muisca Indians in sixteenth century New Kingdom of Granada; history of cartography in eighteenth century Santa Marta (New Granada) and, more generally, on the forging of Colombia's map; featherwork in sixteenth century New Spain; and travel images in nineteenth century Colombia.


See also:

http://www.razoncartografica.com

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