David Carey Jr.

Curriculum Vitae

Biography

Dr. David Carey Jr. teaches courses on the history of Latin America, health and slavery. His interests range from oral history to the history of liquor and he tries to apply his research to his other interests. After editing a book on alcohol in Guatemala (Distilling the Influence of Alcohol: Aguardiente in Guatemalan History), Dr. David Carey Jr. decided to apply his knowledge. The results were remarkable. In 2018, he won the Bartender of the Year award in Roland Park, Baltimore. His post-professorial goal, however, is to become a bilingual barista. Living in Central America, Mexico, and Ecuador has exposed him to quality coffee beans and magnificent mochas. He loves to speak Spanish (which he learned in Mexico and Chile) and Kaqchikel Maya (which he learned in Guatemala). Conducting oral history and archival research in those languages has informed much of his scholarship including Health in The Highlands (2023),  Oral History in Latin America: Unlocking the Spoken Archive (2017), I Ask for Justice: Maya Women, Dictators, and Crime in Guatemala, 1898-1944 (2013)—which was the co-recipient of the Latin American Studies Association’s 2015 Bryce Wood Book Award—Engendering Mayan History: Kaqchikel Women as Agents and Conduits of the Past, 1875–1970 (2006), and Our Elders Teach Us: Maya-Kaqchikel Historical Perspectives (2001). To ensure the people and countries that have so generously welcomed and collaborated with him have access to his research and scholarship, Dr. Carey publishes translations of his books in Spanish and Kaqchikel. He also wrote a book in Kaqchikel (Ojer taq tzijob’äl kichin ri Kaqchikela’ Winaqi’ (A History of the Kaqchikel People). The John Simon Guggenheim Foundation, Wenner Gren Foundation, Fulbright, and American Philosophical Association have supported his research and scholarship.

Inspired by the ingenuity, altruism, and perseverance of the Latin Americans and Latina/os he has befriended and collaborated with over the years, Dr. Carey serves as an expert witness for Guatemalan asylum seekers. He is currently co-authoring a book on Central Americans and asylum the United States. True to that theme, one of his favorite courses is his HS100 class on Immigration. 

His most meaningful and impactful endeavor at Loyola has been working with students and colleagues on the Untold Truths project to understand Loyola’s histories of slavery and its legacies. As the university continues to confront those legacies in campus architecture and infuse the curriculum with analysis of how those particular histories shape the present, he has been proud to be part of a growing campus culture that is intentionally anti-racist and welcoming to all students, community members, staff, and visitors. 

In addition to writing more than forty peer-reviewed articles and essays, He also has edited four books including: Histories of Disability in Latin America (with Heather Vrana) Violence and Crime in Latin America: Representations and Politics (with Gema Santamaría),  and Latino Voices in New England (with Robert Atkinson). His teaching and research interests include immigration, gender, ethnicity, indigenous peoples, environmental change, medicine and health, crime and punishment, and oral history. 

  Courses Taught

• HS 108D The Making of the Modern World: Latin America
• HS 390D Gender and Sexuality in Latin America
• HS 395 Violence and Holiness in Twentieth-Century El Salvador
• HS 442 Health and Illness in Latin America
• HS 490 Environmental History in Latin America

Publications

Health in the Highlands	Oral History In  Latin America	Violence and Crime in Latin America
I Ask for Justice	Engendering Mayan  History	Our Elders Teach Us
Distilling the Influence of Alcohol	Latino Voices in New England	Ojer taq tzijob’äl kichin ri   Kaqchikela’ Winaqi’  (A History of the   Kaqchikel People)

Areas of Specialization

• Latin American History, Pre-colonial to the Present
• Indigenous Peoples
• Gender
• Oral History

News

• Dr. Carey was presented the Nachbahr award from the Center for the Humanities.  The Nachbahr Award is awarded each year to an individual with outstanding achievement in scholarship or creative work. 
• Dr. Carey was interviewed by Loyola Magazine on "How to collect and record oral histories". 
• David Carey, Jr., Ph.D., named a Guggenheim Fellow. For more information on this Fellow, please see this article.
• Dr. Carey's Recently Cowrote a new book Violence and Crime in Latin America.
• Another new book was published, Oral History in Latin America
• NECLAS PRIZE CITATIONS 2015 - Winner:  David Carey Jr., “Drunks and Dictators: Inebriation’s Gendered, Ethnic ad Class Components in Guatemala, 1898-1944.” In Alcohol in Latin America: A Social and Cultural History. Eds. Gretchen Pierce and Áurea Toxqui. Tucson: The University of Arizona Press, 2014. 131-157.
• Click here to read the recent Loyola Today article written by Jenna Anne Chan, '15 about David Carey, Jr. entitled "Uncovering Hidden Voices of the Past."
• Congratulations to Professor David Carey Jr., who is the co-recipient of the Latin American Studies Association’s 2015 Bryce Wood Book Award for his book I Ask for Justice: Maya Women, Dictators, and Crime in Guatemala, 1898-1944 (Austin: University of Texas Press, 2013)! LASA is the most important professional organization for scholars of Latin America in the United States. The book award is given each year to an outstanding book on Latin America in the social sciences and humanities that was published in English in the United States.