Dr Blanca Tovías

ARC Discovery Early Career Research Fellow
Room 808, Brennan MacCallum Building

P +61 2 93512469

I am a historian of modern United States, Canada, and colonial and postcolonial Latin America, which I study from interdisciplinary and transnational perspectives. I completed my first class combined honours degree in English and Spanish and Latin American Studies (2001), and my PhD in History and English (2007) at the University of New South Wales.

Research Fellowships

• University of Sydney Postdoctoral Research Fellow (2009–2011)
• ARC Discovery Early Career Research Fellow (2012–2014)

Prizes

• 1998 The Aisling Society Prize in English
• 2007 The Doctoral Thesis Prize, University of New South Wales
• 2007 and the Ian J. Bickerton Postgraduate History Prize
• 2008 H-Soz-u-Kult Prize: as contributor to Dirk Moses (ed.), Empire, Colony, Genocide: Conquest and Subaltern Resistance in World History (New York: Berghahn Books), awarded best book prize for 2008.

Research areas

• History of First Nations Women (United States and Canada).
• History and Literature of the First Nations of the Great Plains (United States and Canada).
• Imperialism and Colonialism throughout the Americas.
• The History of Exploration and Colonization of the Pacific, 19th Century.
• The History and Literature of Revitalization Movements in the Americas.
• Fiestas, Dances and Ceremonies in the Mexico–United States Borderlands

Teaching areas

• Colonizing of the Americas
• United States History after the Civil War
• The Politics and Semiotics of Dress in History
• English Literature
• Spanish Language
• Latin American Literature

I am currently teaching Modern United States History, and I have given guest lectures on topics ranging from the Comparative History of the Americas, Indigenous Women, United States–Mexico Borderlands, Cultural Genocide, and US Indigenous Activism.

Current projects

1. Australian Research Council funded project: Entangled Colonialisms: First Nations Women of the American–Canadian Borderlands, 1880–1940. I study how women renegotiated their gendered roles during the first six decades of settlement on reserves and reservations in Montana (United States) and Alberta (Canada). I am especially interested in their income-producing activities, their wealth in material terms, and their prestige and authority derived from ceremonial functions.
2. Fiestas, Dances and Ceremonies on the Mexico-United States Borderlands. I study the deep historical connections of contemporary fiestas, dances and ceremonies in the State of Nuevo León, Mexico, in the light of indigenous dances and rituals first described during the sixteenth century by Spanish explorers and missionaries. The project is in its early stages, but will consist of three separate case studies, each illustrative of the influences of Indigenous Mexico on contemporary cultural expressions.

Current Writing

1. Antorcha Peruana: Historia y Poesía de la Independencia en el Sur Andino, an annotated edition of an 1819 history written in epic verse; Ms. in Biblioteca Nacional, Madrid. Paleographic transcription, author biography, historical background, literary analysis – In preparation (est. 40,000 words). I have presented preliminary findings at several international conferences, including the 2012 International Congress of Americanists in Vienna, and expect to complete writing in 2013.
   ‘The Harvest of Colonialism: The Condition of Native Andeans in the Puno Region at Independence’, in Tom Knight, Lisa Solling, Damian Tybussek, Christine Gant Thompson, eds., Yachay Wasi: a collection of papers in honour of Ian S. Farrington.
2. ‘The Vicissitudes of First Nations Women’s Work in the Early Reserve Era.’ Journal article. I analyse women’s work in the transition to settlement as part of a larger project concerned with the history of First Nations women in Montana and Alberta 1880–1940.
3. ‘Gendered Designs: Twentieth Century Patterns of Clothing and Patterns of Living on the Plains.’ Journal article. I explore the role of craft production in First Nations intertribal and intercultural relationships (United States, Canada, and Australia).

Publications

Books

• 2011 Colonialism on the Prairies: Blackfoot Settlement and Cultural Transformation, 1870–1920. Brighton: Sussex Academic Press. ISBN 978-1-84519-307-2. Paperback 2012: ISBN 978-1-84519-540-3.
• 2008 De la Etnohistoria hacia la Historia de los Andes, John Fisher and David Cahill (eds), with the collaboration of Blanca Tovías, Quito: Abya-Yala. ISBN 978-9978-22. Paperback 978-1-84519-540-3.
• 2006 New World, First Nations: Native Peoples of Mesoamerica and the Andes under Colonial Rule, David Cahill and Blanca Tovías (eds), Brighton: Sussex Academic Press. ISBN 1-903900-63-8.
• 2003 Élites Indígenas en los Andes: Nobles, Caciques y Cabildantes bajo el Yugo Colonial, David Cahill and Blanca Tovías (eds), Quito: Abya-Yala. ISBN 997822-293-6.

Articles and Book Chapters

• 2013 ‘The Right to Possess Memory: Winter Counts of the Blackfoot c.1836–1937.’ Submitted to Ethnohistory, Accepted, in press.
• 2013 ‘Blackfeet Diplomacy and Contestation before and after the 1870 Massacre of Pikuni,’ Ethnohistory, accepted and forthcoming, March 2013.
• 2013 ‘First Nations Women Across the Americas’. Chapter for a book on the history of empires, edited by Robert Aldrich and Kerstin McKenzie, under contract with Routledge. I analyse the roles of indigenous women in North America, Mesoamerica and the Andes, and how these were transformed as a result of colonisation. Accepted, in print.
• 2012 ‘A Blueprint for Massacre: The United States Army and the 1870 Blackfeet Massacre,’ in Philip G. Dwyer and Lyndall Ryan (eds), Theatres of Violence: Massacre, Mass Killing and Atrocity throughout History, New York: Berghahn Books, pp. 1200 6–140. ISBN 978-0-85745-299-3 (print) and E-978-0-85745-300-6 (e-book).
• 2009 ‘A Hero for all Seasons: A Late Nineteenth-Century Paii in James Welch’s Fools Crow,’ Australasian Canadian Studies 27, 1–2, pp. 129–147.
• 2008 ‘Navigating the Cultural Encounter: Blackfoot Religious Resistance in Canada (c.1870–1930),’ in Dirk Moses (ed.), Empire, Colony, Genocide: Conquest, Occupation and Subaltern Resistance in World History, New York: Berghahn Books, pp. 271–295. ISBN 978-1-84545-452-4. Paperback published 2010.
• 2007 ‘Power Dressing on the Prairies: The Grammar of Blackfoot Leadership Dress,’ in Louise Edwards and Mina Roces (eds), Gender, Nation and the Politics of Dress in Asia and the Americas. Brighton, UK: Sussex Academic Press, pp. 139–162. ISBN 978-1-84519-163-4. Paperback published 2008.
• 2006 ‘Colonialism and Demographic Catastrophes in the Americas: Blackfoot Tribes of the Northwest’, in Patricia Grimshaw and Russell McGregor (eds), Collision of Cultures and Identities: Settlers and Indigenous Peoples. Melbourne: Melbourne University Press, pp. 72–78. ISBN 0 975839 27 6. Electronic edition by the University of Melbourne. RMIT Press, pp. 72–78. EISBN: 1921166282.
• 2006 ‘Introduction: First Nations between Conquest and Independence’, in David Cahill and Blanca Tovías (eds), New World, First Nations: Native Peoples of Mesoamerica and the Andes under Colonial Rule. Brighton, UK: Sussex Academic Press, pp. 1–9. ISBN 1-903900-63-8.
• 2006 ‘Infected by the Hybrid? Framing Blackfoot Stories across Genres,’ New Literatures Review 43, pp. 83–97. ISSN 0314-7495.
• 2003 ‘Introducción: Las élites nativas andinas durante la época colonial’, in Élites Indígenas en los Andes: Nobles, Caciques y Cabildantes bajo el Yugo Colonial, David Cahill and Blanca Tovías (eds). Quito: Abya-Yala, pp. 9–16. ISBN 997822-293-6.

Editorial Responsibilities

Outgoing Managing Editor, Journal of Iberian and Latin American Research (JILAR)