Evan Fernández

PhD Candidate

Latin America

I am a Ph.D. candidate interested in the transnational history of Latin America, particularly Chile and Peru, as part of the Pacific world. My dissertation explores the Chilean sodium nitrate (salitre) industry and the sale of nitrates to Japan in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. The Chilean-Japanese commerce in nitrates fostered a multifaceted and significant trans-Pacific relationship between businessmen and diplomats in these two states. I also work on US-Latin American relations in the twentieth century.

Soy un estudiante en el programa de doctorado de la historia de América Latina en los siglos XIX y XX. Mi investigación se trata especialmente de Chile y el Perú, como parte del mundo pacífico. En éste momento estoy trabajando en un proyecto sobre la industria del salitre Chileno en Japón. En esta época, la venta del salitre en Japón fomentó importantes relaciones comerciales y diplomáticas entre Chile y el otro lado del pacífico. También estoy elaborando investigaciones acerca de las relaciones diplomáticas en las Américas en el siglo XX.

Research Interests

  • Chile
  • Latin America and the Pacific World
  • Transnational history
  • Business history
  • Diplomacy
  • Migration

Awards and Fellowships

2021 Fulbright-Hays DDRA

2020 Outstanding Graduate Student Instructor Award, UC Berkeley Graduate Division

2019 James R. Scobie Award, Conference on Latin American History

2018 Tinker Field Research Grant, UC Berkeley Center for Latin American Studies

Publications and Presentations

2022 "Pan-Americanism and the Definition of the Peruvian-Chilean Border, 1883-1929." Diplomatic History 46, no. 2, April 2022: 292-319

2022 "Chilean Nitrates Businessmen in Japan, 1890-1929." 2022 Latin American Studies Association (LASA/Asia) Conference.

2021 Co-organizer of panel, "International Intrigue and Political Violence in the Age of Pan-Americanism." 2021 PCB-AHA Conference.

2021 “Chile and the Political Economy of the Pacific World.” 2021 Business History Conference Doctoral Colloquium.

2021 “'In the Interest of American Peace’: Pan-Americanism and the Definition of the Peruvian-Chilean Border, 1883-1929.” 2021 Rocky Mountain Council for Latin American Studies Conference.

2020 "We Have Seen the Curve of History and It Goes Up: An Evening of History and Humor with Isabel Allende." UC Berkeley Center for Latin American Studies Blog. 

2019 “The Tacna-Arica Border Dispute: Peru, Chile, and Pan-Americanism in the Interwar Period.” Columbia University, April 27

2019 “Race Beyond Borders: Japanese Migration to Chile, 1900-1950.” UC Berkeley Center for Latin American Studies, February 5

2018 “A Treaty of Divergence: Race and Geopolitics in Japanese Migration to Peru, 1924-1930.” Harvard University, March 22

Portrait of Evan Fernández

Contact

evan_fernandez@berkeley.edu