Mark Overmyer-Velazquez

Professor, History and El Instituto, Director of Hartford campus


Dr. Mark Overmyer-Velázquez is Professor of History and Latinx Studies and the 11th University Campus Director of the University of Connecticut-Hartford. The founding Director of UConn’s El Instituto: Institute of Latina/o, Caribbean & Latin American Studies, he trained at Yale University as a historian of Latin America and U.S. Latinos and has dedicated his research and teaching to these intersecting fields. His first work, Visions of the Emerald City: Modernity, Tradition and the Formation of Porfirian Oaxaca, Mexico (Duke, 2006; Spanish translation 2010), won the New England Council on Latin American Studies Best Book Award. He completed the volume, Beyond la Frontera: The History of Mexico-U.S. Migration (Oxford, 2011), while on fellowship as the Peggy Rockefeller Visiting Scholar at Harvard University. His most recent book analyzes the historical experiences of people from Latin America and the Caribbean in their hemispheric and global diasporas. Global Latin(o) Americanos: Transoceanic Diasporas and Regional Migrations (Oxford, 2017), emerges from his work as a Fulbright Scholar examining the history of Peruvian migrants in Chile. Former co-chair of the Latina/o Studies Section of the Latin American Studies Association, he also edited the two volume, Latino America: State by State (Greenwood, 2008), which addresses the historical significance of the growing Latin(o) American population throughout the United States. He has been a visiting scholar and lecturer at universities in Mexico, Chile, Jordan and China, among others countries. The first Latino elected official in West Hartford, in 2017 he concluded a six-year term as a member and Chairman of the West Hartford Board of Education. He currently serves on a number of Boards of Directors including, Connecticut Students for a Dream; Freedom University in Georgia; Hartford Public Library; Hartford Consortium for Higher Education; MetroHartford Alliance; IQuilt and is an Advisory Committee Member of the Capitol Region Council of Governments. He keeps his commitment to the arts playing keyboard in the UConn faculty band, Blues without Borders.

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Mark Overmyer-Velazquez
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Emailmark.velazquez@uconn.edu