Maria Marsilli
Associate Professor
Ph.D., Emory University
Email: mmarsilli@jcu.edu
Maria has been at John Carroll University since 2002. Her research focuses on Andean traditional religion and its encounter with Spanish Catholicism in the Andes, particularly in Southern Peru-Northern Chile. She has published extensively and directed a major research project on the subject. She is currently completing her book manuscript “Hábitos Perniciosos: Religión Andina Colonial en la Diócesis de Arequipa, siglos XVI-XVIII” and is the co-editor of the forthcoming Culto a los Ancestros, Hechicería y Resistencia Colonial. El Caso de Gregorio Taco, Arequipa, 1750, a transcription and essay collection on a renowned archival case of late-colonial Indian religious misconduct.
An avid traveler, Dr. Marsilli has resided and completed extensive archival research in Peru, Chile, Spain, Italy, and Austria.
Her teaching interests include pre- and post-state societies in the Americas, native-Hispanic acculturation, religious unorthodoxy and syncretism, and the making and unmaking of Spanish colonialism in the New World and in the Andes.
Teaching repertoire:
- HS 273 “Colonial Latin American History”
- HS274 “Modern Latin America”
- HS490 “Che Guevara: The man, the myth, the icon”
- HS397 “Women and the Catholic Church”
- HS170 “Introduction to Latin American History”
- HS118 “World Civilizations”
- HS490 “The Incas”
- HS397 “Race and Gender in Latin American History”
Forthcoming Publications:
Co-editor of book: Culto a los Ancestros, Hechicería y Resistencia Colonial. El Caso de Gregorio Taco, Arequipa, 1750. Forthcoming in DIBAM (Dirección de Bibliotecas, Archivos y Museos) publications, Education Ministry of Chile.
“History: Colonial Chile and New Granada” section of the Handbook of Latin American Studies, Vol. 66, by the Hispanic Division of the Library of Congress.
“Volcanes Locuaces e Inextinguible Fuego Interior: La Erupción del Huaynaputina en 1600 en la narrativa Jesuítica,” in: Escritura, Imaginación Política y la Compañía de Jesús (siglos XVI-XVIII), Teodoro Hampe-Martínez and Alexandre Coello de la Rosa, eds., Edicions Bellaterra, Barcelona, Spain.
“Carreras eclesiásticas y extirpación de idolatrías: La doctrina de Camiña, Siglo XVII”, in co-authorship with Jorge Hidalgo and Julio Aguilar, in: Chungará. Revista de Antropología Chilena.
Recent Publications:
- “Los Senderos de la Idolatría: El viaje de Vázquez de Espinosa por los Altos de Arica, 1618” in co-authorship with Priscilla Cisternas, in: Chungara. Revista de Antropología Chilena, Vol. 42, No.1, pp.465-476.
- Reflective piece: “Como ‘Decíamos Diciendo’: Conversaciones con John Murra en una Tarde de Invierno” in: Chungara. Revista de Antropología Chilena, Vol. 42, No.1, 2010, pp. 89-91.
- “Missing Idolatry: Mid-Colonial Interactions between Parish Priests and Indians in the Colonial Diocese of Arequipa,” Colonial Latin American Historical Review (CLAHR), Vol. 13, number 4, 399-421, (Fall 2004, copyright 2007).
- “Native Americans: Central and Southern Andes,” “Chile,” “Cronistas,” and “Kuracas”, entries for Iberia and the Americas: Culture, Politics, and History, J. Michael Francis, ed., (Santa Barbara, California: ABC-CLIO, 2006).
- “I heard it through the grapevine: Analysis of an anti-secularization initiative in the sixteenth-century Arequipan countryside, 1584-1600” The Americas 61(4) April 2005, 647-672.
- “Todo en Familia: Herejes, Hechiceros e Idólatras en Arequipa Colonial,” in Más allá de la dominación y la resistencia: Ensayos de Historia Peruana, Siglos XVI-XX, Paulo Drinot and Leo Garofalo, eds. (Lima: Instituto de Estudios Peruanos, 2005,) 77-103.
- “Testamentos indígenas en Arequipa Colonial” in Nanda Leonardini, David Rodríguez, and Virgilio Freddy Cabanillas, comps., Imagen de la Muerte. Primer Congreso Latinoamericano de Ciencias Sociales y Humanidades (Lima: Universidad Nacional Mayor de San Marcos, 2004,)173-181.
Research:
- Evaluator for Colonial Latin American Historical Review (CLAHR).
- Scientific Evaluator for CONICYT (Comisión Nacional de Ciencia y Tecnología,) Ministry of Education, Chile.
- Contributing Editor to the Handbook of Latin American Studies.
- International Researcher, CIHDE, Centro de Investigaciones del Hombre en el Desierto (Center for Studies of Human Life in Deserts), Chile.
- Director of Fondecyt Project No. 3060120, “Religiosidad Andina Colonial en el Norte de Chile,” research grant from the Chilean Ministry of Education, 2006-2007.
Interesting links: