Here at Augustana College, on its bluff above the waters of the Mississippi, it is definitely summer. First hint: last Sunday was our 156th annual commencement. Second hint: there isn’t a student to be seen. Third hint: faculty were supposed to have their grades in two days ago. Fourth hint: now there aren’t any faculty to be seen, either.
But I’m still here, working on writing projects, this podcast, and sadly wishing a goodbye to a valued colleague. Departmental colleague Marco Cabrera-Geserick is leaving in a few days to take a position at Rhodes College in Memphis. Hypothetically he could get there by raft, or stowing away on a fast barge, but he doesn’t seem to have any interest in doing either of those things.
Marco is a historian of Latin America, a raconteur, and an altogether Good Egg. He was born in East Berlin, and lived there for his first seven years, before moving to his father’s country of Costa Rica. Augustana’s Department of History is very happy that just a few years later he chose to sojourn in the Quad Cities. We will miss him.
Listeners to Historically Thinking have heard Marco twice. The first time he discussed his area of research, the “ephemeral republics” of Latin America. On the second occasion he gave a clear and fluent description of the difficult sub discipline of cultural history. Hopefully, some day in the next couple of years, we’ll have a conversation with him again. Until then, give a listen to these.