Sebastian Diaz Angel, a PhD student in history at Cornell University, and Anita Carrasco, associate professor of anthropology at Luther College, have been selected as 2022 Fellows at the American Geographical Society Library.
Both scholars plan to focus on Latin American-related materials in AGSL.
Angel’s research will utilize both the cartographic collections of the AGSL and the American Geographical Society archives as he investigates how engineers viewed the Amazon Basin and the Isthmus of Panama when they were planning for mega-projects to alter the landscape for development.
The preliminary title of his dissertation is “Weaponizing the Wilds: Counterinsurgency Mappings and the Geographical Engineering of Development in Cold War Latin America.”
Carrasco will be studying the recently acquired diaries and photographs of William E. Rudolph, who was the chief engineer for the Chile Exploration Company during the 1920s and 1948-59, as she prepares a research article on Rudolph’s life and work in the Atacama Desert.
Her publications include a 2020 ethnography, Embracing the Anaconda: A Chronicle of Atacameño Life and Mining in the Andes, that makes extensive use of AGSL’s collection of photos related to Rudolph’s 1963 book, Vanished Trails of Atacama.
Entirely funded by generous donors, the fellowship program was created to give scholars from around the world an opportunity to pursue their work in proximity to AGSL’s distinguished collection of primary sources, which include over 520,000 maps of all types covering the world at a wide range of scales; an extensive photographic collection of more than 700,000 images in a variety of formats; and a number of important archives in the field of geography. The library also owns over 320,000 volumes of atlases, books, and periodicals related to geography and cartography.
AGSL invites proposals for 2023 fellowships, with a deadline of November 30, 2022. Visit the AGSL fellowship description page for more information.
–Steve Burnham