Dr Roberto Chauca Tapia
Roberto Chauca is a Lecturer in the Department of History at the University of Sydney and Co-Editor of the Reviews section of the Journal of Historical Geography. His research and publications focus on the history of Amazonian cartography, more specifically, on the dialogue between missionary and indigenous science and its repercussions on the production and transmission of spatial and visual knowledge in early modern Amazonia.
Indigenous history and systems of knowledge and, in particular, the process through which natives conditioned the Franciscan and Jesuit missionary knowledge on Amazonian landscapes and societies.
Cartographic and hydrographic history, and how these scientific disciplines became instruments not only to represent nature but to dispute the Amazon region in early modern times.
The study of Amazonia as a laboratory for the construction of spatial knowledge in a connected and comparative manner that transcends imperial, national, and linguistic frontiers.
The confrontations and transformations resulting from the encounter between Indigenous societies and European colonisers in the early modern Americas
The Iberian Empires and the roots of globalisation, 15th-18th centuries.
Global networks, sites of production, and circulation of scientific knowledge.
| Project title | Research student |
|---|---|
| Sinking Cartographies: Traps, Tools and Imaginaries at the Bottom of the Ocean | Thomas MELICK |
Publications
Book Chapters
- Chauca, R. (2021). Amazon. In Mark Thurner, Juan Pimentel (Eds.), New World Objects of Knowledge: A Cabinet of Curiosities, (pp. 149-154). London: University of London Press. [More Information]
Journals
- Hayes, E., Chauca, R. (2024). Revising Historical Geography Reviews. Journal of Historical Geography, 83, A1-A2. [More Information]
- Chauca, R. (2023). Mauro Jose Caraccioli, "Writing the New World: The Politics of Natural History in the Early Spanish Empire". Journal of Historical Geography, 81, 17-18. [More Information]
- Chauca, R. (2023). Mirela Altic, "Encounters in the New World: Jesuit Cartography of the Americas". The Portolan, 117, 36-37.
2024
- Hayes, E., Chauca, R. (2024). Revising Historical Geography Reviews. Journal of Historical Geography, 83, A1-A2. [More Information]
2023
- Chauca, R. (2023). Mauro Jose Caraccioli, "Writing the New World: The Politics of Natural History in the Early Spanish Empire". Journal of Historical Geography, 81, 17-18. [More Information]
- Chauca, R. (2023). Mirela Altic, "Encounters in the New World: Jesuit Cartography of the Americas". The Portolan, 117, 36-37.
- Chauca, R. (2023). The Image of Precision: The Case of the 'Longitudinal' Amazon. Cartographica, 58(4), 175-188. [More Information]
2021
- Chauca, R. (2021). Amazon. In Mark Thurner, Juan Pimentel (Eds.), New World Objects of Knowledge: A Cabinet of Curiosities, (pp. 149-154). London: University of London Press. [More Information]
- Chauca, R. (2021). Covid-19 in ecuador: Political fragility and vulnerability of public health (La covid-19 en Ecuador: fragilidad politica y precariedad de la salud publica). Historia, Ciencias, Saude - Manguinhos, 28(2), 587-591. [More Information]
- Chauca, R., Ragas, J. (2021). Presentación del dossier: Ciencia, conocimiento y sociedad [Introduction to Dossier: Science, Knowledge and Society]. Iconos: revista de ciencias sociales, 71(25), 7-12. [More Information]
2020
- Chauca, R. (2020). Technique, theory and praxis in the cartography of the Amazon by Samuel Fritz (Tecnica, teoria e praxis na cartografia da Amazonia de Samuel Fritz). Terra Brasilis, 14(Special issue).
2019
- Chauca, R. (2019). The Franciscan "river empire" in western Amazonia between the 17th and 18th centuries, (El imperio fluvial franciscano en la Amazonia occidental entre los siglos XVII and XVIII). Historia Critica, 73, 95-116. [More Information]
2018
- Chauca, R. (2018). Missionary hydrography and the invention of early modern Amazonia. Colonial Latin American Review, 27(2), 203-225. [More Information]
2016
- Chauca, R. (2016). On Chinese scholars and Amazonian vogues: Indigenous participation in the production of Jesuit cartographic and geographical knowledge in Asia and America. Revista de Historia y Geografia, 34, 19-41. [More Information]
2015
- Chauca, R. (2015). Indigenous contribution to the cartography of the Upper Ucayali by the end of the XVIIth century. Bulletin de l Institut Francais d Etudes Andines, 44(1), 117-138. [More Information]
Grants
2024 - The Smith Center First Book Workshop in Map History, The Newberry Library, Chicago, USA
2022 -The Charles J. Tanenbaum Fellowship in Cartographical Bibliography, Bibliographical Society of America
2022 - Explokart Fellowship, Cartographiae Historicae Cathedra Foundation (CHC)
2021 - Gerald D. Feldman Travel Grant, The Max Weber Foundation