Jane M. Rausch

Faculty picture Professor

Office: Herter 721
Telephone: (413) 545-6763
Fax: (413) 545-6137
E-mail: jrausch@history.umass.edu

Degree: Ph.D., University of Wisconsin (1969).
Field(s) of interest: Latin America.

Graduate Courses Offered:
Caribbean Historiography: New Approaches: Old Debates
Latin American Histirography: Colonial Period

Research Interests and Professional Activities
All Latin Americanists are generalists to some degree for we study the history of twenty- one different countries from pre-Columbian times to the present, but within this broad and fascinating field, we do have more specific interests. In addition to teaching undergraduate and graduate survey courses on Latin America during the colonial and national eras, I also offer courses on the Caribbean (defined as Cuba, Haiti, the Dominican Republic and Puerto Rico). My research specialization, however, lies in frontier history with a focus on Colombia. I am currently at work on a history of Villavicencio (a town founded in 1840 at the edge of the Colombian plains or Llanos) exploring how, over a period of one hundred and fifty years, this frontier outpost was transformed into a metropolis of 300,000 people.

Sample Writings:

Colombia: Territorial Rule and the Llanos Frontier (University Press of Florida, 1999).

The Llanos Frontier in Colombian History, 1830-1930 (University of New Mexico Press, 1993).

A Tropical Plains Frontier: The Llanos of Colombia 1531-1831(University of New Mexico Press, 1984.)

People and Issues in Latin American History: The Colonial Experience (2nd ed. Markus Wiener, 2000).

Where Cultures Meet: Frontiers in Latin American History (Edited with David J. Weber) (Scholarly Resources, 1994).