History Department

Education

• Ph.D., University of Chicago, Latin American History
• M.A., Stanford University, Latin American Studies, emphasis in History
• B.A. University of California, Berkeley, Latin American Studies, emphasis in History and Spanish-American Literature
• One Year exchange program, Pontificia Universidad Católica del Perú

About

Charles Walker is Professor of History. He directed the Hemispheric Institute on the Americas at UC Davis for over a decade and was also the director of Global Centers for Latin America & the Caribbean (Global Affairs). He held the MacArthur Foundation Endowed Chair in International Human Rights from 2015-2020. He has published widely on Peruvian history, truth commissions, and historiography, in English and Spanish. His 2014 Harvard University Press book, The Tupac Amaru Rebellion, was named one of the best books of the year by the Financial Times and also won the Hundley Prize from the Pacific Coast Branch of the American Historical Association. His Witness to the Age of Revolution has won awards in the United States and Peru and will be published in Quechua. For more (in English and Spanish) see http://charlesfwalker.com/

Research Focus

Latin American social, cultural, and intellectual history; Peru and the Andes; the history of catastrophes and natural disasters (earthquakes); the Tupac Amaru Rebellion; Truth Commissions. Current Project: Violence, Memory and the Shining Path in Peru

Publications

Walker, C., & Liz Clarke, Witness to the Age of Revolution: The Odyssey of Juan Bautista Tupac Amaru. Oxford University Press, 2020.

Walker, C. & Carlos Aguirre, Alberto Flores Galindo: Utopía, historia y revolución. La Siniestra Ensayos, 2020.

Walker, C., & Aguirre, C. (Eds.), The Lima Reader, Durham: Duke University Press, 2017.

Walker, C. (2014) The Tupac Amaru Rebellion, Harvard University Press

• Named as one of Financial Times' Best Books of 2014-History
• Hundley Award for Best Book in History, Pacific Branch of the AHA

(Spanish translation: La rebelión de Tupac Amaru, Instituto de Estudios Peruanos, Lima, 2015)

• Walker, C., & Aguirre, C. (Eds.) (2010) and co-translator with Willie Hiatt, Alberto Flores Galindo, In Search of an Inca: Identity and Utopia in the Andes, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, introduction, XIII-XXIX.
• Walker, C. (2009) Diálogos con el Perú: Ensayos de Historia, Fondo Editorial del Pedagógico San Marcos
• Walker, C. (2008) Shaky Colonialism: The 1746 Earthquake-Tsunami in Lima Peru and its Long Aftermath, Duke University Press (Spanish translation: Colonialismo en ruinas, Instituto de Estudios Peruanos (Lima), 2012)
• Walker, C. (1999) Smoldering Ashes: Cuzco and the Creation of Republican Peru, 1780-1840 Duke University Press (Spanish translation: Entre Túpac Amaru y Gamarra: Cusco y la Formación del Perú Republicano, 1780-1840 Centro Bartolomé de Las Casas, October 1999. Second edition, 2004, third 2013; French translation (partial), Dial, revue mensuelle en ligne, December 2013-January 2014)

Teaching

Charles Walker teaches a variety of courses and seminars on Latin American and comparative history. He often teaches the survey courses, History 7A and 7B, and upper-division courses on Human Rights (HIS and HMR 161) and U.S.-Latin American Relations (168). His grad seminars vary greatly. Charles Walker teaches a variety of courses and seminars on Latin American and comparative history. He often teaches the survey courses, History 7A and 7B, and upper-division courses on Human Rights (HIS and HMR 161) and U.S.-Latin American Relations (168). His grad seminars vary greatly. He has won teaching prizes from the UC Davis Academic Senate and the Associated Students of UC Davis.

Awards

• Visiting Fellow, Shelby Cullom Davis Center, Princeton University, (fall 2021)
• Modern Endangered Archive Program (UCLA), for digitization of CCP Archive (Lima), 2021
• ACLS Fellowship, 2018-19
• MacArthur Foundation Endowed Chair in International Human Rights, 2015-2020
• Honorary Professor, History Department, Universidad Nacional San Antonio Abad del Cuzco (Peru), 2014
• Norbert Lechner Endowed Lecture, Universidad Diego Portales (Santiago, Chile), August 2014
• UC Davis, Division of Social Sciences, Dean's Innovation Award 2014
• José María Arguedas Best Article Prize, Peru Section, LASA 2013
• UC Davis Academic Senate, Distinguished Teaching Award, 2011