Tag Archives: Latin America

Past talk:
12:00 Friday, March 27                                                                                    WAG 316

Untitled

Blake Scott

“The Nature of Tourism: Smithsonian scientists as guides to the Caribbean, 1912 to 1964”

The nature of the Caribbean has fascinated European and Euro-American travelers and tourists for centuries. What perceptions and expectations have been associated with this naturalist gaze? Where do modern views of tropical nature come from? I analyze the history of these perceptions and their influence on the practices of tourism through the stories of naturalist explorers working at the Smithsonian Institution in the early twentieth century. Traveling scientists have shaped and reproduced the culture of nature-exploration so often packaged within the Caribbean tourism industry.

Blake Scott is a PhD Candidate in History at UT Austin, writing a dissertation on the emergence of mass tourism in the Caribbean during the early twentieth century.

Past talk:
 12:00 Friday, February 13                                                                                GAR 4.100

CoverFelipe Cruz

 “Parachute Colonization: Aviation and Frontier Settlement in Brazil”

Brazil has a very large territory, but one that has remained sparsely populated over the centuries. Most of Brazil’s population has lived in coastal cities, while the vast inland frontiers remained out of reach.  During the twentieth century, however, the Brazilian state saw aviation as a technological fix to this demographic and territorial problem – seeking to colonize the interior by air. This talk will provide a brief overview of the history of aviation in Brazil, focusing on both the aspirations and realities of an “aeronautical frontier,” that is, a region colonized primarily by air. We will see the ways in which this new method for settling the interior both broke with and continued some colonial traditions.

FElipe CruzA PhD Candidate in History at UT Austin, Cruz was awarded a Kranzberg Dissertation Fellowship by the Society for the History of Technology

 

.