Latin American Studies Center Names New Interim Director

Alejandro Cañeque named Interim Director of UMD's Latin American Studies Center.

To: ColleaguesFrom: Bonnie Thornton Dill, DeanDate: August 23, 2013Re: Latin American Studies Center Director I’m pleased to announce the appointment of Alejandro Cañeque as Interim Director of the Latin American Studies Center, effective August 23, 2013. Currently an associate professor in the Department of History, Alejandro is a specialist in the history of colonial Latin America and the Spanish empire. He teaches courses on the history of the encounter between Europeans and natives in the New World, colonial Spanish America, early modern imperialism and colonialism in the Atlantic world. In addition to the United States, he has taught in the United Kingdom,Mexico, Peru and Spain. Alejandro’s main area of research is the political and religious cultures of the early modern Spanish world, with an emphasis on colonial Spanish America. He is the author of “The King’s Living Image: The Culture and Politics of Viceregal Power in Colonial Mexico” (2004) and contributor to the edition of Juan de Palafox’s “Virtues of the Indian” (2009). His works, “The Americas,” “Historia Mexicana,” “Revista de Indias” and “Histórica,” were published in the Colonial Latin American Review. He is currently working on a book-length study of the politics of martyrdom on the frontiers of the Spanish empire in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. The Latin American Studies Center has long serviced the campus and larger community as a research center dedicated to the teaching of topics related to Latin America and the Caribbean. Over the 2013-14 academic term, Alejandro will provide oversight for the center’s curricular offerings, undergraduate certificate programand outreach activities. Alejandro holds a licenciatura (or license) in geography and history from the Universidad de Sevilla in Spain, and a M.A. in Latin American studies and a Ph.D. in Latin American history from New York University. I also announce that Jennifer Baur Sanchez is the center’s new coordinator, replacing Winslow Robertson and responsible for course scheduling, events and publicity. Finally, I want to take this time to thank Karin Rosemblatt for her service as the center’s director for the past five years.