Puerto Rico: Interrogating the Idea of the Nation and the Politics of Memory

media release: Please join UW Latin American, Caribbean and Iberian Studies Program. The events are free and open to the public.

Please note: This lecture will ONLY be given virtually via Zoom.

About the presentation: Puerto Rico is a Spanish-speaking colony of the United States with a history shaped by conquest and resistance. For centuries, Puerto Ricans have crafted and negotiated complex ideas about nationhood. In this talk, Prof. Meléndez-Badillo will provide a brief reflection on the challenges of writing Puerto Rican history in the midst colonial neglect, infrastructural collapse, and an ongoing fiscal crisis. Further, he will also interrogate what does it mean to think about the Puerto Rican nation beyond its Caribbean geography and including its diasporas. Using his most recent book as a launch pad, the talk will interrogate the politics of memory and history-making in contemporary Puerto Rico.

About the presenter: Dr. Melendez-Badillo is a historian of Puerto Rico, the Caribbean, and Latin America. His work focuses on the global circulation of radical ideas from the standpoint of working-class intellectual communities. He holds a Ph.D. in Latin American History from the University of Connecticut. Before arriving at UW-Madison, he was a Mellon Faculty Fellow and Assistant Professor of History at Dartmouth College.

Co-sponsored by the Chican@ and Latin@ Studies Program.