
The University of New Mexico
NEWS RELEASE
Media Contact: Karen Wentworth (505) 277-5627; kwent2unm.edu
October 10, 2006
UNM Lecture Focuses on How to Tackle Complex Research Projects
Cynthia Radding, Director of the Latin American and Iberian Institute and UNM History professor, will discuss the research process required for her new book in a lecture titled, “Landscapes of Power and Identity: Comparative Histories of the Spanish Imperial Borderlands.” The lecture, part of the Open Doors Lecture Series, is scheduled for October 17 at 2 p.m. in the Willard Room of Zimmerman Library on the UNM main campus.
Radding says research for her book required developing techniques to do the comparisons necessary for discussing two very geographically and culturally different colonies on the frontiers of the Spanish empire - the Sonora region of northwestern Mexico and the Chiquitos region of eastern Bolivia's lowlands - from the late colonial period through the middle of the nineteenth century. Her research led her to discover contrasting historical processes and landscapes.
She will discuss how she approached this complex research, her initial questions, and her conclusions for “bringing geography back in” without submerging culture. She says her study is especially relevant to New Mexicans, because it may challenge them to think of New Mexico communities in comparison with the histories of Hispanic and indigenous communities of the same era in South America . Radding describes her book, which is published by Duke University Press, as a look at the many faces of Spanish imperialism and the landscapes that colonial societies created.
The lecture is free and open to the public. The Open Doors Lecture Series is sponsored by University Libraries' Division of Iberian and Latin American Resources and Services (DILARES).
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