Historian of Puerto Rico, the Caribbean, and Latin America, Professor Jorell Meléndez-Badillo has appeared in a series of media appearances in February 2026. Recently, Professor Meléndez-Badillo collaborated with global superstar Bad Bunny in the creation of …
Latin American and Caribbean History
Marcella Hayes Receives Award for Forthcoming Book: Black Self-Governance: The Making of Political Culture in Seventeenth-Century Lima
UW-Madison History Professor Marcella Hayes’ forthcoming book, Black Self-Governance: The Making of Political Culture in Seventeenth-Century Lima, is already receiving praise. Black Self-Governance has won the 2025 Founder’s Prize for manuscripts in development from the …
UW-Madison Puerto Rican Studies Hub Launches
Launched in October, UW–Madison’s Puerto Rican Studies Hub is the first initiative of its kind in the Midwest and is already emerging as a dynamic center for scholarship, public engagement, and community connection. Supported by …
Jorell Meléndez-Badillo collaborates with artist Bad Bunny to tell Puerto Rico’s History
Professor Jorell Meléndez-Badillo recently collaborated with artist Bad Bunny on his latest project. Accompanying the songs on Bad Bunny’s sixth album, “Debí Tirar Más Fotos”, 17 visualizers were released on January 5. The visualizers feature …
Marla Ramírez and Undergraduates Present at Oral History Conference
Professor Marla Ramírez and two undergraduate students, Lezly Vejar and Zevdah Drizin, presented on their original research at the 2023 Oral History Association Annual Meeting in Baltimore, Maryland this October. The presentation, titled “Latinxs in …
Marla Ramirez Won the Oral History Association’s Article Award
Professor Marla Ramirez won the Oral History Association’s Article Award for her essay titled, “Gendered banishment: Rewriting Mexican repatriation through a transgenerational oral history methodology.” This award was created to recognize an article or essay …
Alum Tamara Feinstein Publishes New Book
Alum Tamara Feinstein (Ph.D., 2013) recently published a new book titled, The Fate of Peruvian Democracy: Political Violence, Human Rights, and the Legal Left. Description: Tamara Feinstein investigates the bloody Shining Path conflict’s effect on …
Welcome New Faculty
The Department of History is excited to welcome three new faculty members – Khaled Esseissah, Michael Martoccio, and Jorell Meléndez-Badillo! Khaled Esseissah joins us as a historian of Islam, colonialism, slavery, race, and gender, with …
Welcome New Faculty
The Department of History is excited to welcome three new faculty members – Simon Balto, Marcella Hayes, and Matt Villeneuve! Simon Balto joins us as a historian of the twentieth-century United States, with a particular …
Professor Pablo Gómez Publishes New Book
Professor Pablo Gómez has a new book published this week, titled The Gray Zones of Medicine: Healers and History in Latin America (University of Pittsburgh Press, 2021). The book was co-edited by Diego Armus, a professor of …