Robert Clemens Schwaller

Robert Schwaller
  • Associate Professor
  • Director of Undergraduate Studies, History
  • History

Contact Info

Wescoe Hall 3650
Lawrence
1445 Jayhawk Boulevard
Lawrence, KS 66045

Biography —

His interests include: Latin America (Mexico, Central America, Caribbean); history of race (intellectual and social development); African Diaspora in Latin America, indigenous history (ethnohistory of Mesoamerica).

Research —

Research interests:

  • Latin America
  • History
  • Latin American Studies
  • Colonial
  • African Diaspora
  • Indigenous studies
  • Race
  • Ethnicity

Teaching —

Teaching interests:

  • Latin America
  • History
  • Latin American Studies
  • Colonial
  • African Diaspora
  • Indigenous studies
  • Race
  • Ethnicity

Selected Publications —

Schwaller, Robert C. "‘Lords of the Land’ Maroon challenges to Spanish sovereignty in Panama and Hispaniola, 1520-1610." In At the Heart of the Borderlands: Africans and Afro-decedents in the frontiers of Spanish America, David Cameron Jones and Jay Harrison, eds.University of New Mexico Press, 2023. pp. 87-107.

Schwaller, Robert C., ed. African Maroons in Sixteenth-century Panama: A History in Documents. University of Oklahoma Press, 2021.

Schwaller, Robert C., and M. Bowman. "Capturing the quotidian: casta paintings and demographic trends in late colonial Mexico." Colonial Latin American Review 30, no.3 (Summer 2021): 423-444.

Schwaller, Robert C. "Justicia y relaciones entre negros, castas e indios (siglos XVI y XVII)." in Los indios de Nueva España ante la justicia local, Yanna Yannakakis, Martina Schrader-Kniffki, and Luis Alberto Arrioja Diaz, eds. Librería COLMICH (Colegio de Michoacán), 2019. pp. 153-173.

Schwaller, Robert C. "Contested Conquests: African Maroons and the Incomplete Conquest of Hispaniola, 1519–1620." The Americas: A Quarterly Review of Latin American History 75, no.4 (Fall 2018): 609-638.

Schwaller, Robert C. 2016. “Géneros de Gente in Early Colonial Mexico: Defining Racial Difference.” Other. University of Oklahoma Press.

Schwaller, Robert C, ed. 2012. “A Language of Empire, a Quotidian Tongue: The Uses of Nahuatl in Colonial New Spain.” Journal Articles. Ethnohistory 59 (4).

Grants & Other Funded Activity —

Negotiation or Conquest? Spanish-Maroon Conflict in the Southern Caribbean. KU GRF $5,888 (2020-2021 deferred to 2022-23) This GRF award allowed me to conduct research at the Archivo General de Indios to access documents related to African maroons and their resistance to Spanish authorities in what is now Panama, Colombia, and Ecuador.

Faculty Award, Kansas African Studies Center, KU, $400 (2021). This award allowed me to subsidize the indexing costs for my publication, African Maroons in Sixteenth-century Panama: A History in Documents.

Maroon Landscapes of Panama and Hispaniola. International Studies, KU, $2,000 (2018) This award supported field research in Panama and The Dominican Republic to visit regions that once housed African maroons. This research allowed me to better understand the landscape and environment of these places and spaces.

Early Afro-Indigenous Frontiers in the Southern Caribbean. $5888.00. (7/1/2015 - 8/31/2015). The GRF provided funds that allowed me to conduct research at the Archivo General de la Nacion in Bogota Colombia. This research allowed me to access archival documents concerning Africans and Native Americans in early Spanish America. This outcomes of this research has already been presented at several conferences and is part of a larger project that will culminate in a historical monograph.. University (KU or KUMC). Status: Funded

Franklin Research Grant, "Early Afro-Indigenous Frontiers in the Southern Caribbean (16th and 17th c.)". American Philosophical Society. $6000.00. (7/1/2014 - 8/31/2015). Not-for-Profit (not Foundation). Status: Funded

Craig Anthony Arnold Faculty Research Stipend. $1200.00. (7/1/2014 - 6/30/2015). University (KU or KUMC). Status: Funded