Blair Woodard

Visiting Assistant Professor

I graduated with my Ph.D. in Latin American history from the University of New Mexico in 2010. My academic interests are centered on the histories of Latin America, U.S.-Latin American relations, popular culture, and national identity. My dissertation entitled “Intimate Enemies; Visual Culture and U.S.-Cuban Relations, 1945-2000,” focuses on the interplay of popular culture and official diplomacy in U.S.-Cuban relations. My research examines the popular visual ties that bound the United States and Cuba as well as visual discourse of the sustained fifty-years of enmity between the two nations. My research in both Cuban and U.S. archives has been supported by grants from Society for Historians of American Foreign Relations, the University of New Mexico’s Latin American and Iberian Institute, and the history department at the University of New Mexico. In addition to preparing my manuscript for publication, I am also co-authoring the second edition of Tangled Destinies: Latin America and the United States under contract with the University of New Mexico Press.

I was born and raised in Fullerton, California. I went to college at the University of California, Santa Barbara. As an undergraduate I participated in the UC Education Abroad Program and was able to attend the University of St. Andrews for a year. Having immensely enjoyed my time abroad and wanting more international experience, I joined the Peace Corps and spent two and a half years as an agricultural extension volunteer in the mountains of Guatemala. It was there that my fascination in U.S.-Latin American relations (and my appreciation for running water) expanded. Following the Peace Corps, I traveled throughout Central America and Mexico by bus. I worked in Los Angeles at various jobs and for the international service organizations before deciding to return to graduate school and pursue a career in college education. 

Academic Credentials