Pierre du Bois Visiting Professor 2012 – Ricardo Salvatore

Professor of Contemporary Latin American History

 

salvatore

In 2012, a new initiative was undertaken to support the invitation of a professor of contemporary Latin American History to teach during one semester at the Graduate Institute. This was done in order to offer students the possibility to expand their knowledge regarding the history of this continent. The first professor in this position was Ricardo Salvatore.

“This semester the Graduate Institute welcomes Ricardo Salvatore, a very distinguished economic, social and cultural historian from Argentina, as the first holder of the Pierre du Bois Visiting Professorship in Contemporary Latin American History. Mr Salvatore’s regular position is plenary professor in the History Department at Universidad Torcuato Di Tella in Buenos Aires.In an age of specialis ation, Ricardo Salvatore is remarkable for the breadth of his expertise across history and related disciplines. His PhD from the University of Texas at Austin (1987) is in economics, and he is a major contributor to the economic history of Argentina and Latin America generally. In this context, he is one of the pioneers of anthropometric methods in Latin American history: the study of heights as evidence of changing nutrition and thus of physical welfare. He is also a major figure in Argentine social and political history. Here he has explored the history of crime and violence, and brought to nineteenth-century Argentina the perspective of the Subaltern Studies Group of Indian historians, but with perhaps greater emphasis upon the capacity of peasants and other subalterns to alter history. In addition, some of his very recent work examines the cultura politics of the emergence of Latin American studies in the United States. He is on the editorial board, or a corresponding editor, of nine journals, including both area studies (Latin American, American) and history (diplomatic as well as economic and social). Mr Salvatore’s work has been widely recognised internationally, as his long list of fellowships and visiting professorships attests – including at Columbia, Duke, Georgetown, Harvard, Princeton, Yale and the London School of Economics.”

Excerpt from an article published in Globe 9, the Review of the Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies.

Courses Taught at the Graduate Institute

The Economic History of Latin America. See the course webpage

Seminars

On 1 March 2013, Salvatore gave a seminar in the International HIstory Department on Heights, Nutrition and Development in Modern Argentina.

Areas of Expertise

  • 19th and 20th-Century Latin America (especially social and labor history)
  • State- and Nation-Building (especially Latin America, 19th Century)
  • Historiographical Schools (20th Century)
  • Applications of Social Theory to Historical Research

See Salvatore’s CV and publications.