Hendrik Kraay

Hendrik Kraay is professor of history at the University of Calgary. He received his Ph.D. from the University of Texas at Austin (1995) and subsequently held a postdoctoral fellowship at the University of British Columbia. Since 1997, he has taught at the University of Calgary. He is the author of Race, State, and Armed Forces in Independence-Era Brazil: Bahia, 1790s-1840s (Stanford University Press, 2001) and Days of National Festivity in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, 1823-1889 (Stanford University Press, 2013); the latter won the Conference on Latin American History’s 2014 Warren Dean Memorial Prize for the best book on Brazilian history. In addition to numerous articles and book chapters published in both English and Portuguese, Kraay has edited or coedited the following books: Afro-Brazilian Culture and Politics: Bahia, 1790s-1990s (M.E. Sharpe, 1998); Nova História Militar Brasileira (with Celso Castro and Vitor Izecksohn, Editora da Fundação Getúlio Vargas, 2004); I Die with My Country: Perspectives on the Paraguayan War, 1864-1870 (with Thomas L. Whigham, University of Nebraska Press, 2004); and Negotiating Identities in Modern Latin America (University of Calgary Press, 2007). In 2004, Kraay was visiting professor at the Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro. His research has been supported by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council’s Standard Research Grant and Insight Grant programs. In 2014-15, Kraay served as acting director of the Latin American Research Centre. His current research projects are focused on the Dois de Julho festival in Bahia and the change in pre-Lenten celebrations from entrudo to carnaval. Fellow interview with Dr. Kraay.