Telephone: (413)-253-7218
E-mail: jrausch@history.umass.edu

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

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. 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 the significance of the introduction of radio technology in the transformation of the Llanos frontier from 1930 to the present.

Sample Writings:
From Frontier Town to Metropolis: A History of Villavicencio, Colombia, since 1842
            (Rowman & Littlefield, 2007).

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)

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

A Very Brief Vita

1962/ BA (History and Spanish), DePauw University
1964/ MA (Ibero-American Studies), University of Wisconsin-Madison
1969/ PhD (Comparative Tropical History), University of Wisconsin-Madison
1969 to the present/ History Department, University of Massachusetts-Amherst