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Department of History
Tufts University
East Hall
Medford, MA 02155

617.627.5758
Email Prof. Nowara

Office Hours:
Mon & Wed 3:00-4:15pm
Christopher Schmidt-Nowara
Professor
Prince of Asturias Chair in Spanish Culture & Civilization

Biography

I joined the Tufts History Department in 2011 after teaching for more than ten years at Fordham University. My research concentrates on two broad areas: the history of slavery and emancipation in the Hispanic world and the history of politics and ideas in the Spanish empire, especially during the imperial crises of the nineteenth century. I have recently embarked on a new work, a study of Spanish prisoners of war during the resistance against French rule (1808-1814) and the independence struggles in Spanish America (1810-1830). My hope is that this study of captivity on both sides of the Atlantic will bring new insights into Spanish ideas of freedom in imperial and national frameworks, a theme that I have pursued since my first book on Spanish abolitionism.

Over the years I have developed several courses on Spanish, Caribbean, and Atlantic history, not only at Fordham but also as a visitor at the Universidad de Puerto Rico, the Universidade de São Paulo, and the University of Arizona. At Tufts, I look forward to offering a two-semester sequence on Spanish history from the Middle Ages to the present, as well as classes that add to the department's strong commitment to global history. I am eager to work with graduate students interested in approaching Spanish, Caribbean, and Latin American history from Atlantic and global perspectives.

I serve on the editorial board of three journals: the recently founded Bulletin for Spanish & Portuguese Historical Studies, Illes i Imperis/Islands and Empires (published at the Universitat Pompeu Fabra in Barcelona), and Social History, for which I have edited two special issues, one on contemporary Spanish historiography (August 2004) and the other on emancipation in the Caribbean (August 2011).

I will be hosting the annual conference of the Association for Spanish & Portuguese Historical Studies at Tufts in the spring of 2012.  

Education

  • Ph.D. University of Michigan, Ann Arbor 1995
  • B.A. Kenyon College, 1988

Major Publications

  • Slavery, Freedom, and Abolition in Latin America and the Atlantic World. Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, 2011.

  • The Conquest of History: Spanish Colonialism and National Histories in the Nineteenth Century. Pittsburgh: University of Pittsburgh Press, 2006.

  • "Imperio y crisis colonial." Más se perdió en Cuba: España, 1898 y el fin de siglo. Ed. Juan Pan-Montojo. Madrid: Alianza Editorial, 1998, 2nd ed. 2006.

  • Co-edited with John Nieto-Phillips. Interpreting Spanish Colonialism: Empires, Nations, and Legends. Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, 2005.

  • "'La España ultramarina: Colonialism and Nation-building in Nineteenth-Century Spain." European History Quarterly 34 (2004).

  • Empire and Antislavery: Spain, Cuba, and Puerto Rico, 1833-1874. Pittsburgh: University of Pittsburgh Press, 1999.

Courses

  • History 86 Medieval and Early Modern Spain (Fall 2011)
  • Modern Spain (Spring 2012)
  • History of Madrid (Spring 2012)