The International and Global Studies (INST) program is pleased to announce the inaugural lecture in their new Speakers’ Series on Global Development and Sustainability. Dr. Javier Puente will give a talk on his recent book, The Rural State: Making Comunidades, Campesinos, and Conflict in Peru’s Central Sierra (University of Texas Press, 2022). Dr. Puente will focus his talk on the experiences of rural communities in the Peruvian Andes and discuss how the governance of the countryside lies at the foundation of modern states. Puente’s work demonstrates that the demands for reform and revolutionary impulses often emerge as unexpected responses against the state.

Dr. Puente is Associate Professor of Latin American and Latino/a Studies and Chair of Latin American and Latino/a Studies at Smith College. Puente’s interests focus on Andean history and environmental history, the agrarian question in Latin America, insurrectionary and revolutionary processes, the intersection of ecological transformations and sociopolitical conflicts, and the material roots of rural violence. In 2022, the Student Government Association (SGA) at Smith College distinguished him with the annual Faculty Teaching Award for junior faculty members.