Romina A. Green Rioja
Historian of race and gender in modern Latin America
“To Govern is to Educate.” Weaving workshop - Image curtesy of the Museo de la Educación Gabriela Mistral
About
July 2022
Romina A. Green Rioja is Assistant Professor in Latin American history at Washington and Lee University. She is a scholar of gender and race of modern Chile and Argentina. Her book manuscript To Govern is to Educate: Modeling Racial Education in Modern Chile (1879-1920) explores the relationship between state education, immigration policies, and settler-colonialism, demonstrating how those institutions and policies contributed to structural racism and the social marginalization of the Indigenous Mapuche. She also researches and writes about the feminist movement in Chile and Argentina.
Washington and Lee University profile page
Email: rgreen@wlu.edu
Ph.D., History - University of California, Irvine
2012 – 2018
M.A., History - Tufts University
2009 – 2012
B.A., History - San Francisco State University
2007 – 2009
Chilean student protest: “So that governing is once more about educating.”
Pedagogy
As an educator, I am committed to teaching critical thinking and fostering knowledge that allows students to better understand their present. My coursework and lectures center social histories that examine the structural histories of gender, race, and economic systems to underscore the contours of Latin American and global politics. I showcase in my lectures and readings the perspectives of the historically marginalized which decenters traditional historiographies. I use a multidisciplinary and multimedia approach in my teaching, incorporating podcasts, videos, novels, films, YouTube clips, as well as music and poetry analysis. As historians, we strive to give students tools to better understand their present society and be critical, active citizens. As a Chilean-American, I can offer specific lived experiences as a Latina in the U.S. and a gringa in Chile in addition to familial stories living under military dictatorship in Chile and as immigrants to the U.S.
Activism and Scholarship
I believe that a diverse research agenda is crucial to fostering a more inclusive university. My research incorporates multiple methodologies that positions me to collaborate with colleagues and departments outside of history. Even though my primary research area is race in 19th-century Chile, I maintain an active approach to my feminist research by participating in feminist spaces in Chile and Argentina and documenting social protests in both countries. By maintaining my commitment to activism, it has allowed me stay tuned to shifts in political language, ideas, and developments. This has allowed my teaching and research to remain relevant to current political discussions.
