Inter-American Notes

Awards, Fellowships & Prizes

As announced at its luncheon on January 7, 2011, in Boston, Massachusetts, the Conference on Latin American History recognized the superb achievements of the following scholars:

The Bolton-Johnson Prize (for best book in English on any significant aspect of Latin American history):

Robin Derby. The Dictator's Seduction: Politics and the Popular Imagination in the Era of Trujillo (Duke University Press, 2009).

The Mexican History Book Prize

Matthew Restall. The Black Middle: Africans, Mayas, and Spaniards in Colonial Yucatan (Stanford University Press, 2009).

Honorable Mention:

Ann Blum. Domestic Economies: Family, Work, and Welfare in Mexico City, 1884-1943 (University of Nebraska Press, 2009).

The Elinor Melville Prize for Latin American Environmental History (conferred annually for the best book in English, French, Spanish or Portuguese on Latin American environmental history):

Stefania Gallini. Una história ambiental del café en Guatemala: La Costa Cuca entre 1830 y 1902 (Guatemala City: Aviansco, 2009).

The Conference on Latin American History Prize (for most distinguished article published in a journal other than Hispanic American Historical Review or The Americas):

David Carey. "Guatemala's Green Revolution: Synthetic Fertilizer, Public Health, and Economic Autonomy in the Mayan Highlands," Agricultural History 83:3 (Summer 2009).

Honorable Mention:

Brenda Elsey. "The Independent Republic of Football: The Politics of Neighborhood Clubs in Santiago, Chile, 1948-1960," Journal of Social History 42:3 (Spring 2009).

The James Alexander Robertson Memorial Prize (for most distinguished article in Hispanic American Historical Review):

Hendrik Kraay and João José Reis. "'The Tyrant Is Dead!' The Revolt of the Periquitos in Bahia, 1824," Hispanic American Historical Review 89:3 (August 2009).

Honorable Mention:

Christina Bueno. "Forjando Patrimonio: The Making of Archaeological Patrimony in Porfirian Mexico," Hispanic American Historical Review 90:2 (May 2010).

The Tibesar Prize (for most distinguished article in The Americas):

Heather Flynn Roller. "Colonial Collecting Expeditions and the Pursuit of Opportunity in the Amazonian Sertão, c. 1750-1800," The Americas 66:4 (April 2010).

Honorable Mention:

Peter Beattie. "Born Under the Cruel Rigor of Captivity, the Supplicant Left It Unexpectedly by Committing a Crime': Categorizing and Punishing Slave Convicts in Brazil, 1830-1897," The Americas 66:1 (July 2009).

The James R. Scobie Memorial Award (to support exploratory research to determine the feasibility of a Ph.D. dissertation topic dealing with some facet of Latin American history):

• Jennifer Eaglin, Michigan State University

• Jason Kauffman, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

• Jennifer Schaefer, Emory University

• Lynsay B. Skiba, University of California, Berkeley

• Brandi Townsend, University of Maryland

The Lewis Hanke Prize (to support the transformation of a dissertation into a book):

Dana Velasco Murillo (University of California, Irvine): "Indians of the Silver City of Zacatecas, Mexico: 1546-1806."

The Lydia Cabrera Award (to support research on Cuba between 1492 and 1868):

Jacqueline Kent (University of Miami): "Public Performance: Libres de Color Negotiating Equality in Mid-Nineteenth-Century Cuba, 1844-1868."

Distinguished Service Award (conferred annually upon a person whose career in scholarship, teaching, publishing, librarianship, institutional development of other fields demonstrates significant contributions to the advancement of the study of Latin American history in the United States):

Richard Graham (University of Texas at Austin)

In Memoriam

David J. Weber (1940-2010)

David J. Weber, an outstanding scholar, teacher, and mentor, dedicated his productive career to the Ibero-American borderlands. He held the Robert and Nancy Dedman Chair in History at Southern Methodist University from 1976 until his retirement in June 2010, only months before his death on August 20, 2010, from complications following his three-year struggle with multiple myeloma. David Weber endured his illness with dignity and courage; his ashes remained in his beloved New Mexico, where he received his graduate training and focused his early research.

David J. Weber reconstituted the field of borderlands studies, thus establishing his enduring legacy for the historical profession. His brilliant mastery of the historiography, rooted in the U.S.-Mexico borderlands, extended to the breadth of the continent. Within the American Historical Association and the Conference on Latin American History, David Weber founded the CLAH Committee for Frontier and Borderlands Studies, creating a forum in which North American and international...