Mark P. Dries

INTRODUCTION

My EIU Story

Education & Training

Ph.D., University of California, Davis

Conference Presentations

2019   “Invisible Miners in a Mountain of Mercury: Power and Local Archives in Colonial Huancavelica, Peru” – The American Historical Association Annual Meeting, January 3-6

2018   “Firmado y rubricado:” Small Town Notaries and Andean Communities in the Colonial Andes – Rocky Mountain Conference on Latin American Studies, April 4-7

2017   “The Indios Mineros of Colonial Huancavelica: Collaboration and Resistance in Peru’s Most Infamous Mine” – The Southwest Seminar: Consortium on Colonial Latin America, Oct. 5-7

2017    “Indians, Notaries, and Indian Notaries: The colonial Archive of Huancavelica, Peru” – Pacific Coast Branch of the American Historical Association

2017     “Native Mercury: History of an Early Colonial Mining Center” – Berkeley Latin American History Working Group, March 17

2016     “The Indios Mineros of Early Colonial Huancavelica” – Institute of Andean Studies Annual Meeting, Jan. 6-7

2016     “Native Mercury: Indigenous Actors in the Creation of Colonial Huancavelica, Peru” – American Society for Ethnohistory, Nov. 9-12

2016     “Los Indios Mineros de Huancavelica” -  Seminario Extracurricular, Programa de Estudios Andinos, La Pontificia Universidad Católica del Perú

2016     “El azogue y la economía minera durante la época colonial” – La Pontificia Universidad Católica del Perú, Nov. 5

Community

Publications

2013    “Ayni” in Conflict in the Early Americas: An Encyclopedia of the Spanish Empires’s Aztec, Incan, and Mayan Conquests. Rebecca Seaman, ed. ABC-CLIO press.

2013    “Castrovirreyna” in Conflict in the Early Americas: An Encyclopedia of the Spanish Empires’s Aztec, Incan, and Mayan Conquests. Rebecca Seaman, ed. ABC-CLIO press.

2018    Book Review: The Matter of Empires: Metaphysics and Mining in Colonial Peru by Orlando Betancor – Revista Andina - Forthcoming

2012    Book Review: Mercury, Mining, and Empire: The Human and Ecological Cost of Colonial Silver Mining in the Andes by Nicholas A. Robins – Revista Andina, no. 52.

Funding & Grants

Bilinski Writing Fellowship - University of California, Davis

Mendel Research Fellowship - Lilly Library, Indiana University

Fulbright-Hays Doctoral Dissertation Research Abroad Fellowship – US Department of Education

Dissertation Year Fellowship – Davis Humanities Institute, University of California, Davis

Reed Smith Dissertation Year Travel and Research Award – University of  California, Davis

UC Davis Mellon Research Initiative, “Environments and Societies” Research Grant – Andrew W. Mellon Foundation

Frequently Taught Courses

• HIS 3255 - Pre-Contact and Colonial Latin America
• HIS 3260 - Modern Latin America
• HIS 4755 - History of the Andean Region

Research & Creative Interests

Dr. Dries' research focusses on the ethnohistory of the early colonial Andes.  His current project examines the social history of the mercury mining center of Huancavelica, Peru during the late sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries.  As the only source of the mercury in the New World, Huancavelica became a vital part of the colonial economy in the Andes when the silver mines in the region became dependent on the liquid metal to efficiently refine ore.  In order to ensure a steady supply, the Crown instituted a rotational labor draft, forcing thousands of indigenous Andeans from the surrounding regions to work in the toxic environment of the mines.  The human cost of this early modern industry, weighed alongside the economic importance of the mine and its produce made Huancavelica a prototypical example of the abuses of Spanish Colonialism for contemporary reformers and modern historians alike.  Dr. Dries' research draws on previously ignored archives in Huancavelica itself to examine how the local indigenous population responded to colonial exploitation, and to consider how local actors challenged the continual efforts of royal authorities to establish effective control of the mines.  

Professional Affiliations

American Historical Association

Latin American Studies Association

American Society for Ethnohistory