Carrie Ryan

Assistant Professor of Latin American History

B.A. Lawrence University
M.A. University of Wisconsin-Madison
Ph.D. University of Wisconsin-Madison

Programs: History

Carrie Ryan is a cultural historian. In her research, she is particularly interested in how everyday cultural practices connect to identity, politics, consumerism, science and race. She is also interested in historical analysis of photographs, maps, monuments, museum objects, paintings and other non-textually-based sources.

Ryan’s current research explores the “Conquest of the Desert,” a military campaign launched by the Argentine state in 1878 to eradicate the indigenous peoples of the pampas (a region of fertile grasslands in the central part of the country). The conquest and its historical legacies have clear implications for indigenous communities in Argentina, and also shed important light on indigenous-state relations throughout the Americas and beyond.

Ryan has supervised student research on a wide variety of Latin American topics, including Latin Americans in U.S. made films under the Good Neighbor Policy, drug policy and prisoner experiences in Ecuador, urban landscapes and national identity in Mexican history, U.S. policy in Cold War Bolivia, the impact of drug trafficking and drug wars in 20th century Mexico, and environmental and natural resource histories.

Courses
HIST 131 Colonial Latin America
HIST 132 Modern Latin America
HIST 371 Revolutions in Latin America
HIST 372 Borderlands in Latin America
HIST 373 The U.S. in Latin America

Recent Publications
Carolyne R. Larson, ed., “The Conquest of the Desert: Argentina’s Indigenous Peoples and the Battle for History” (University of New Mexico Press, Fall 2020).

Carolyne R. Larson, “Argentine Man: Civic Scientific Culture and Human Evolution in Argentina, 1890-1930,” in Making Citizens in Argentina, David Sheinin and Benjamin Bryce, editors (Pittsburgh University Press, 2017).

Carolyne R. Larson, “Noble and Delicate Sentiments: Museum Natural Scientists as an Emotional Community in Argentina, 1862-1920.” Historical Studies in the Natural Sciences, Vol. 47 No. 1, February 2017; (pp. 42-75).

Carolyne R. Larson, Our Indigenous Ancestors: Museum Anthropology and Nation-Making in Argentina, 1862-1943 (University Park, PA: Pennsylvania State University Press, 2015).

Carolyne R. Larson, “Natural Athletes: Constructing Southern Indigenous Physicality in Late Nineteenth-Century Argentina,” in Sports Culture in Latin American History, ed. by David Sheinin (Pittsburgh: University of Pittsburgh Press, 2015): 61-83.

Carolyne R. Larson, “The Ashes of Our Ancestors: Argentina’s National Indigenous Heritage under Negotiation and On Display in the Museo Etnográfico, 1904-1930.” The Americas 69:4 (April 2013), 467-492.