Ignacio Martin Baro Prize Lectureship
Mural at the Biblioteca Lerdo de Tejada in Mexico City
Each year CLAS invites doctoral students from all divisions and disciplines who have advanced to candidacy to apply for a Prize Lectureship in Latin American Politics/Human Rights. The award supports the teaching of a one quarter undergraduate course on a major political issue or question pertaining to Latin America.
The Ignacio Martín Baró Program was established to honor the memory of slain colleague and distinguished member of the University of Chicago community, Father Ignacio Martín Baró, who lived a life committed to the human values of democracy, social justice and service to the poor, silenced, and dispossessed. Ignacio Martín Baró was an ordained Jesuit priest, born in Spain in 1942. Upon joining the Jesuit order, Martín Baró was sent to El Salvador where he studied psychology. He came to the University of Chicago in 1976 to pursue graduate studies and three years later received his doctorate in Social Psychology. Upon returning to El Salvador, he found himself in the midst of a violent civil war, which had been ravaging the country for more than a decade. Despite many death threats and brutal acts of repression suffered by colleagues, students and friends, Father Martín Baró continued to pursue a brilliant teaching and research career as pastor of a rural parish on the outskirts of San Salvador. On the morning of November 16, 1989, Father Martín Baró, along with five Jesuit brothers, their housekeeper, and her daughter, became victims of their commitment to the dispossessed of El Salvador. That morning armed soldiers took them away and executed them. The Ignacio Martín Baró Endowed Program was created by then-President of the University of Chicago Hannah Holborn Gray to honor the life and memory of this extraordinary individual. The endowment is administered by the Center for Latin American Studies and supports an annual Lectureship awarded to an advanced graduate student to teach a course of his/her design related to politics and human rights in Latin America.
Past Ignacio Martin Baró Prize Lecturers
- Patrick Iber (History): U.S. Imperialism in Latin America (Autumn 2008)
- Sarah Osten (History): Women and Revolution in Latin America (Winter 2008)
- João Felipe Gonçalves (Anthropology): Cuba in Socialism and Diaspora (Spring 2007)
- Aaron Anwell (Anthropology): The Rise of Left-Wing Governments in Latin America (Spring 2006)
The application deadline for 2009-2010 has passed. Please return to our website later in the fall for details on the Prize Lectureship for 2010-2011.
Click for a sample of the 2009-2010 application and application guidelines.
