Meri Clark

Education

BA, in History, Reed College (1995)
MA, in History, Princeton University (1999)
PhD, in History, Princeton University (2003)

Background

Meri Clark is Professor of History and Coordinator of the Global Scholars program for the College of Arts and Sciences. She specializes in the history of nineteenth-century Colombia and her scholarly work focuses on education, the state and nation, and intellectual history. She teaches about varied themes in colonial and modern Latin American history, including class, commodities, culture, dictatorship, gender, foreign relations, Latinos, race, and revolution, as well as modern World History.

Prior to joining the faculty of Western New England University in 2005, Professor Clark was a Visiting Assistant Professor at the University of Delaware, where she taught Latin American history. She received her PhD in History from Princeton University and her BA in History from Reed College. She was a Fulbright Scholar in Colombia (1995-1996) and studied there in 1993, traveling extensively in Colombia and the region during her years of undergraduate and graduate study. She spent part of her childhood in Australia and South Africa and has traveled widely in the Americas, Asia, and Europe.

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Scholarly Works

“Escritura y Retórica de la República: Educación durante y después de la revolución colombiana, 1790-1850.” Reformas liberales y resistencias en el siglo XIX iberoamericano, eds. A. Escobar, G. Quinteros. Hismundi; Universidad Nacional de la Plata, Argentina. Forthcoming 2024.

“From the Andes to the Alps: Colombian Writers on Travels in Europe.” The Business of Leisure: Travel History in Latin America and the Caribbean, ed. A.G. Wood. U Nebraska Press, 2021.

“‘The good and the useful together’: Colombian Positivism in a Century of Conflict.” Latin American Positivism: Theory and Practice, eds. G. Gilson; I. Levinson; 27-48. Lexington, 2013.

“Teaching Writing in the Republic of Colombia, 1800-1850.” Paedagogica Historica: International Journal of the History of Education, 46:4 (2010): 449-461.

“The Emergence and Transformation of Positivism in Nineteenth-Century Latin America.” A Companion to Latin American Philosophy, ed. Susana Nuccetelli, et al., 53-67. Wiley-Blackwell, 2009.

“Conflictos entre el Estado y las élites locales sobre la educación colombiana durante las décadas de 1820 y 1830.” Revista de Historia Crítica [Colombia] 34 (2007).

“Disciplining Liberty: Early National Colombian School Struggles, 1820-1840.” Transformations in Schooling: Historical and Comparative Perspectives, ed. K. Tolley; 87-108. Palgrave MacMillan, 2007.

“Childhood in Colonial Latin America,” in Iberia and the Americas: Culture, Politics, and History, ed. J. M. Francis; pp. 208-211. ABC-Clio, 2006.

“‘The Blight of Bad Examples’: Morals Legislation and Social Conflict in Colombian Schooling, 1800-1830.” Working Paper 02-24 (2002), Harvard University Atlantic World Seminar.

“Letter from Bogotá.” Princeton Program in Latin American Studies Boletín (Winter, 1999).

Interests

• History of Colombia
• Latin America
• Early National Period
• Gender
• Culture

Courses Taught