Education

Ph.D., History, The University of Texas at Austin, 1995

Fields of Interest

Colonial Latin American History, History of the Family in Latin America, Gender and Women in the History of Latin America, Men and Women in Contemporary Latin America, Gender and Race in the Latin American History, Feminism, and Global History, the History of Emotions; Masculinity and War

My research has focused on the History of Women and the Family in Colonial and XIX Century Bogotá, the Capital of Colombia. I am particular interested in following the trajectory of Colombian women and demonstrating the many ways they have contributed to the invention of the nation. One of my main concerns has been to unveil the many functions — often unrecognized — that women have assumed, both within the intimate walls of their homes and in the public sphere. One of my books examines the life of mixed — often illegitimate — children of Bogotá during the XVIII Century. Here, I identify the centrality of mestiza (mixture of white and Indian) women both in the family and the society and the high proportion of illegitimate children among the 'color' people. One book I edited, Con Mirada de Mujer, focuses on contemporary Colombian women in films. The book presents and evaluates the work of selected female film-makers doing films about women in Latin America.

I have been also an advocate of Public Education and my concern that the role the state must be to take on the education of the subaltern population is reflected in the book I compiled and edited, U.N. Proyecto Público. Debates, which was the result of a National Conference of University Professors in Colombia, which I helped to organize. The purpose of that Conference was to discuss the role of public education in the age of Neo-liberalism. The book examines the myriad avenues Public Education benefits the population in a Third World country such as Colombia, and the negative effects of leaving it in the 'invisible hand' of the market.

As an active feminist in Colombia, I am a member of the Editorial Committee of the Feminist Journal In Other Words to which I regularly contribute articles.

Courses taught

Some of the graduate courses I have taught during the last six years are: Colonial Latin American Historiography, Colonial Latin American History, Gender, Family and Society in Eighteenth-Century Latin America, Marriage and Family in Colonial Latin America, Feminist Theories.

Representative publications

Las cosas del querer: amor, familia y matrimonio en Iberoamérica (Guadalajara, Mexico: Editorial Universidad de Guadalajara, 2017).Edited, and chapter 1.

Del amor y otras pasiones: Élites, política y familia en Bogotá: 1778-1870 (Bogotá: Universidad Nacional de Colombia, 2014). (Will be published in English translation in 2015 by the University of New Mexico Press)

Los hijos del pecado. Ilegitimidad y vida familiar en la Santafé de Bogotá colonial (Bogotá: EUN Editorial Universitaria, 1997).

Con mirada de mujer, Editor. (Bogotá: EUN Editorial Universidad Nacional, 2000).

U.N. Proyecto Público. Debates, Editor (Bogotá: EUN Editorial Universidad Nacional de Colombia, 1999).

Introductory Chapter, Ética, Masculinidad y Feminidad. Reflexiones desde las Ciencias Sociales (Bogotá: Tercer Mundo Editories, Universidad Nacional, 2001). 1-30.

"Población y poblamiento en Santafé de Bogotá en el siglo XVIII," in Colombia: historia urbana; Forthcoming book. Edited by Zambrano Fabio, Germán Mejía (Bogotá: Universidad de los Andes, 2001).

"El mestizaje en la transición de la Colonia a la República," in ¿Mestizo Yo? (Bogotá: CES, Universidad Nacional, 2001).

"Las mestizas y el concubinato en la patriarcal Santafé de Bogotá en Siglo XVIII.," in Centro de Estudos de Demografia Histórica de América Latina, Populacao e Famlía (Humanitas, Publicacoes FFLCH/USP, 1999) pp. 99-113.

"La buena esposa: ideología de la domesticidad," in En otras palabras. Mujeres, mitos e imaginarios 6, 1999, pp. 32-50.

"Las mestizas y el concubinato en la patriarcal Santafé de Bogotá Siglo XVIII," in En otras palabras. Mujeres, amores y desamores 3, 1997, pp. 49-59.

Representative Conferences

CEISAL Congreso Internacional. "Tiempos posthegemonicos: Sociedad, cultura y politica en America Latina" June 28- July 1 Salamanca Spain Symposium on my book, On Love and other Passion: Elites, Politics and Family in Bogotsa, Colombia, 1778-1870. (Editorial Universidad Nacional, Bogota, Colombia, 2015)

Historical Demography, XI Congress, Cadiz Spain, June 24, 2016. I delivered the paper," The City of Bogota, 1801: Demographic composition based on data from the Smallpox Epidemic, 1801.

Rocky Mountains Latin America Studies Association, Santa Fe NM. April 2016, I delivered the paper, "Written in Blood and Tears: War, Peace and Masculinity in 19th Century Colombian Letters "