A citizen of Colombia, Professor Alcira Dueñas is a historian who conducts research on the cultural and intellectual history of Amerindians and other subordinated groups of the Peruvian Andes during the colonial era. Professor Dueñas earned her Bachelor of Arts from Universidad de Bogotá, Jorge Tadeo Lozano in Economics, and her Master of Art and Doctorate in History from The Ohio State University, where she focused on the history of Latin America. For more than twenty years, professor Dueñas has taught courses on Colonial and Modern Latin America, Women's history of Latin America, and modern World History. Professor Dueñas has had a distinguished career: she is a Fulbright scholar, recipient of the OSU Graduate School Alumni Research Award, and, along with a group of faculty of color from the History Department, she has recently been honored with the Distinguished University Diversity Enhancement Award from the University Senate, as well as with an equivalent distinction from the College of Humanities.
For Professor Dueñas, the road to Ohio State was a long one that spanned the length of two sub-continents. She began her career in Latin America, and recalled, “I was born in Bogotá, where I completed my undergraduate education. I worked as a college teacher for about 20 years and then moved to the U.S. for my graduate studies.” Professor Dueñas first came to Ohio on a Fulbright Fellowship from 1994-96, where she excelled in her graduate studies. Her decision to come later to OSU was logical, “OSU is one of the top public research and teaching institutions of the U.S.,” Professor Dueñas said. “It offers ample opportunities for professional development and supports the scholarly and teaching efforts of assistant professors to obtain tenure. Academic freedom and the availability of a strong structure for research are among the key factors that influenced my decision to work at OSU.”
Nearly 3,000 miles from her hometown, Professor Dueñas found more than a graduate education: she found a new home to foster her intellectual development. “At OSU, I have met a select group of scholars with whom I have had a meaningful intellectual exchange,” Professor Dueñas explained. “I have been able to advance collaborative teaching and service projects with my colleagues in a friendly and supportive environment.” Taking full advantage of the opportunities she created, Professor Dueñas became an award winning graduate student at the OSU main campus and eventually a member of the OSU Newark faculty. “My teaching, research, and service experience at OSU Newark has been fundamental to create global awareness about Latin American history and culture in our campus,” Professor Dueñas remarked. “From this perspective, my work has contributed to enhance the diversity of the college experience of my students and colleagues.”
Professor Dueñas continues to feel indebted to OSU for her intellectual flowering, and through her OSU education she has infused an interdisciplinary approach into her historical methodology as well. Her first book, which hits shelves in the spring of 2010, utilizes tools of literary criticism and ethnohistory to highlight the presence and practices of indigenous and mestizo intellectuals in colonial Peru. She develops a textual analysis of Andean manifestos, memoriales (petitions), reports, and letters to identify the rhetorical strategies these intellectuals utilized to reach out to the royal powers. Dueñas explains, “I place such analysis in the historical context of the major critical conjunctures of Spanish colonialism in the Andes, particularly the insurrections that intersected with some of the writings under study. I apply anthropological methods, as I examine issues of identity, religion, and Andean political culture.”
Professor Dueñas’ creative approach to research has resulted in her manuscript being picked up by a major academic press; the book is complete and in production with the University Press of Colorado. Her book reconstructs the history of indigenous and mestizo intellectuals in mid and late colonial Peru, illuminating the writing practices and social agency of Andeans in their quest for social change. Dueñas elucidates, “I conclude that Andean scholarship from mid-and-late colonial Peru reflects the cultural changes of the colonized ethnic elites at the outset of modernity in Latin America. Their intellectual and political struggles reveal them as autonomous subjects, moving forward to undo their colonial condition of "Indians," while expanding the intellectual sphere of colonial Peru to educated 'Indios ladinos.' They used writing, Transatlantic traveling, legal action, and even subtle support to rebellions, as means to improve their social standing and foster their ethnic autonomy under Spanish rule.” Dueñas concludes, “They attempted to participate in the administration of justice for Indians and seized every opportunity to occupy positions in the ecclesiastical and state bureaucracy.”
With all of her accomplishments and a major publication looming, Professor Dueñas remains a dedicated educator. “Throughout the years I have been able to develop a creative research and teaching portfolio. At OSU Newark I have found opportunities and support for my professional career, attendance to professional conferences nationally and internationally, and invaluable resources to develop research at the international level.” Considering the interdisciplinary nature of both her research and teaching style, it is reasonable to assume that Professor Dueñas will remain at the cutting edge of both scholarship and education for years to come.
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