Allen Wells
Roger Howell, Jr. Professor of History
Spring 2008
- History of Mexico (HIST 266)
- The Cuban Revolution (HIST 356)
| Phone | (207) 725-3728 |
| Title | Roger Howell, Jr. Professor of History |
| Department | HISTORY |
| 2nd Title | Acting Program Director |
| 2nd Department | LATIN AMERICAN STUDIES |
| Work Location | 203 Edward Pols House |
| awells@bowdoin.edu |
Allen Wells came to Bowdoin in 1988 after teaching nine years in North Carolina. His scholarship has focused on modern Mexican history, especially Yucatán and he offers a range of courses in c olonial and modern Latin American history. Originally from New York, he received his M.A (1974). And Ph.D. (1979) in History at the State University of New York at Stony Brook and his B.A. (1973) in History and Latin American Studies from the State Univer sity of New York at Binghamton.
He and Steve Topik (University of California, Irvine) are currently preparing an essay on “The Economics and Social Politics of Shifting Markets” for Vol. 5, Transformation and Crisis, 1870 to 1945, ed. Emily Rosenberg, A New History of the World. General Editors Akira Iriye (Harvard University) and Jürgen Osterhammel (University of Konstanz).
Recent Publications:
Tropical Zion: General Trujillo, FDR and the Jews of Sosúa (Durham, NC: Duke University Press, forthcoming Spring 2009).
Gallery of historical images from the forthcoming book »
"Reports of its Demise are not Exaggerated: The Life and Times of Yucatecan Henequen," In From Silver to Cocaine: Latin American Commodity Chains and the Building of the World Economy, 1500-2000, eds.Carlos Marichal, Zephyr Frank and Steven Topik. Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 2006), 300-320.
“Los mayas en las obras de los historiadores yucatecos del siglo XIX,” in Los mayas de ayer y hoy: Memorias del Primer Congreso Internacional de Cultura Maya, eds., Alfredo Barrera Rubio y Ruth Gubler, 2 Vols. (México: Solar, Servicios Editoriales, 2006), II: 807-830.
"Dialectical Bananas," in Steve Striffler and Mark Moberg, eds., Banana Wars: Power, Production and History in the Americas (Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 2003): 316-334.
The Second Conquest of Latin America: Coffee, Henequen and Oil during the Export Boom, 1850-1930. Co-editor and contributor, with Steven Topik (University of California, Irvine). (Austin: University of Texas Press, 1998).
"A Welcome Shift of Emphasis: Scholarship on Plantations,Haciendas and Ranches in Nineteenth-Century Latin America," Plantation Society in the Americas 6:1 (Spring 1999): 1-12.
"Out from the Shadows: Recent Scholarship on Late-Nineteenth-Century Mexico," Latin American Research Review 35:1 (Winter 2000): 172-186.
"Clientelism and the Political Baptism of Yucatán's Urban Working Classes, 1880-1929," Wil Pansters, ed., Citizens of the Pyramid: Essays on Mexican Political Culture (Amsterdam: Thela, 1997), 66-106.
"Forgotten Chapters of Yucatán's Past: Nineteenth-Century Politics in Historiographical Perspective," Mexican Studies/Estudios Mexicanos 12:2 (Summer 1996), 191-229.
"All in the Family: Railroads and Henequen Monoculture in Porfirian Yucatán," Hispanic American Historical Review, 72:2 (May, 1992), 159-209.
 |
Recent Honors and Grants
Karofsky Faculty Encore Lecture, nominated by the Senior Class ’08. “Cuba’s Favorite Pastimes: Baseball and Politics,” September 7, 2007.
John Simon Guggenheim Fellowship, 2006-2007.
American Council of Learned Societies/Social Science Research Council/National Endowment for the Humanities International and Area Studies Fellowship, 2006-2007
President, New England Council of Latin American Studies, 2005-2006.
Fund for Course Development Grant for travel to Cuba in April 2000 with Nat Wheelwright (Biology) to acquire materials to co-develop a course entitled, "Contemporary Central America and the Caribbean: Environment, Politics and Culture."
Summer of Discontent, Seasons of Upheaval: Elite Politics and Rural Insurgency in Yucatán, 1876-1915, named an Outstanding Academic Book for 1997 by Choice.
Appointment, Institute for Advanced Study, School of Social Science, Princeton, New Jersey. National Endowment for the Humanities Fellow for 1995-1996.
Advanced International Research grant from the Joint Committee of the Social Science Research Council and the American Council of Learned Societies with funds provided by the National Endowment for the Humanities, 1995-1996
Kenan Fellowship for Faculty Development, Bowdoin College, 1995
Article, "All in the Family: Railroads and Henequen Monoculture."won the Joseph T. Criscenti Prize for the best article published in 1992 by a member of the New England Council of Latin American Studies (NECLAS).
Student Honors Theses
Aron, David, '05, "Making Choices, Sowing Division: Chile's Jewish Community during the Allende and Pinochet Eras."
Brant, Sarah, '94. "Assimilation, Accommodation and Resistance: A Reevalution of Gender in Colonial Mapuche Society."
Butchenhart, Nell, '97. "The Transformation of the Virgin of Guadalupe: The Female Archetype and Women's Activism in Morelos, Mexico."
Endries, Carrie, 97. "'Si la mujer no está, la democracia no va:' Chilean Women's Resistance to the Military Dictatorship,"
Evans, Chris, '98, "The Politics of Human Rights: U.S. Foreign Policy and Argentina, 1976-1980."
Finnegan, Karen, '03. "The Paradox of Pinochet's Chile: Patriarchal Ideology and Women in the Work Force."
Hess, Benjamin, '02, "Ni un paso atrás: The Dirty War and the Human Rights Movement's Struggle for Justice in Argentina."
Johnson, Julie, '97. "Building Community and Forging Resistance Against a Military Regime: Brazilian Women during the Distensão Period (1974-1978)."
Lee, Jae In, ’06, “De Coreano a Coreguayo: The Korean-Paraguayan Community, 1964-2005.”
Lettieri, Michael, '05, "Mexico's Long Road to Democracy: How Middle Class Politicization and Political Reforms Transformed Mexico's One Party State."
Pearson, Marcus, '05, "'Cuba Needs Many Robespierres:' Soviet Spies, Cuban Dissidents and the Institutionalization of the Cuban Security Apparatus, 1959-1964.'"
Reilly, Katherine, '04, "A Wound that Will not Heal: Argentina's and Chile's Judiciaries and the Elusive Search for Justice and Reconciliation."
Sherman, Richard, '02, "Reconstructing Nicaragua's Revolutionary Past: Augusto Sandino, Carlos Fonseca and the Sandinista Myth."
Short, Jonathan, '00, "Justifying a Cold War Intervention: U.S. Propaganda and the Post-Mortem Campaign to Discredit Maurice Bishop, Former Prime Minister of Grenada."
Troya, Natalie, '93. "Redefining Community in Exile: The Guatemalan Maya in Mexico."
Villano, Vincent,'00, "Multivocal Interpretations of the Symbol of Emiliano Zapata: The Evolution of a Mexican Myth, 1920-1976."
Wood, Joshua., '98, "Adapting and Recovering Ixilian Culture: A Guatemalan Region Responds to Crisis and Change."
Weisbrode, Kenneth. "Spiritual Nationalism and Politics in Argentina, 1900-1912: A Critical Interpretation," 1991.