Oscar de la Torre cv Email: odc1@pitt.edu http://oscarhistoria.wordpress.com Fields: Latin America ; Atlantic History; Race, Ethnicity, and Gender.

PhD research topic:

Quilombos and Local Economies in Pará, 1900-1940

In this research I am investigating the incorporation of Amazonian maroons to local economies after the end of slavery. Despite a likely scenario of coerced labor relations and land dispossession, the quilombos of Pará seem to have maintained a reasonable degree of group cohesion. What strategies did quilombos adopt to do so, and with what consequences? Conversely, how did local elites seek to mobilize land and labor in this period? The conflicts and alliances that took place at this time will allow us to understand how the quilombos have changed since their entrance into the capitalist economy of the frontier, thus becoming a dynamic peasantry linked to specific historical conditions.

Teaching experience:

Spanish-language Practicum, Teaching Assistant, Fall 2005-2006. 

History of U.S. from 1865, Teaching Assistant, Fall 2006-2007. 

Modern Latin America, Teaching Assistant, Spring 2006-2007.

Conference Presentations:

“Darwinisme social i integració indígena a Bolívia, 1880- 1920”, in the III Congress of Young Historians, organized by the International Historical Studies Center and the Association of Young Historians of the University of Barcelona, March 2003.

“Representing Quilombos. A survey on the discourse and practice of black intellectuals and social movements in Brazil , 1910s- 1988,” graduate students roundtable, Slavery and Freedom in the Atlantic World: Statutes, Science and the Seas, Ann Arbor, MI, March 2006.

“A Middle-Class Project: Afro-Brazilian Political Activism in 1927- 1937.” XII Latin American Social and Public Policy Conference, Pittsburgh, PA , February 2007.

Publications:

With Canals, Q.; Casals, P.; Guitart, C.; and Ibars, L.: Poll “The State of History ”. Analysis. (original title: Encuesta “El Estado de la Historia ”. Análisis ) Published in electronic format in the site web Historia a Debate, www.h-debate.com , December 2002 (on the net in October 22, 2006).

“Latinoamericanos en la Zona Bastarda: influencia latinoamericana en la cultura y la política barcelonesas, 1980- 2005”, in Osamayor 17, 2006, pp. 81-95.

Fellowships, Awards:

Scholarship of the Ministery of Education, Culture and Sport called Collaboration-Scholarship (Beca-Colaboración) in the term 2003- 2004, in the Department of Cultural Anthropology and History of America and Africa.

Fellowship in Latin American Social and Public Policy granted by the Center for Latin American Studies of the University of Pittsburgh, year 2005-2006.

Arts and Sciences Social Science Doctoral Dissertation Fellowships, summer 2007.

Center for Latin American Studies Graduate Student Field Research Grants, summer 2007.

Andrew W. Mellon Pre-doctoral Fellowship, granted by the School of Arts and Sciences, Univ. o Pittsburgh, academic year 2008-2009.

Translations:

George Reid Andrews, Afro-Latinoamérica, 1800-2000, Madrid: Iberoamericana Vervuert, 2007. English to Spanish.

Professional Affiliations:

American Historical Association, 2007.