"My passion is to be a good teacher, to encourage all of my students to succeed and to learn as much as possible about the world and especially about Latin America. I enjoy meeting each of my students personally. If you have a minute to stop by and introduce yourself to me, I would greatly appreciate talking with you. Please let me know how I can best help to make this course a great learning experience for you."
Dr. Rene Harder Horst earned his Ph.D from Indiana University in 1998. He taught Latin American history at Kalamazoo College in Michigan and Bates College in Maine before coming to ASU in 2000. His academic pursuits include Latin American History, Native American History, and Religious Studies. Dr. Horst enjoys introducing Latin America to students in the U.S. and helping them make larger connections between continents. When not teaching or writing, Dr. Horst practices his violin and woodworking.
Education
Ph.D. Indiana University
Areas of Study
African American and Africana Studies, Latin American History, Latin American Indigenous and Church History
Selected Graduate Courses
Seminar Indigenous Resistance in Latin America
Colloquium in Modern Latin America
Readings Seminar in Colonial Latin America
Selected Undergraduate Courses
HIS 1110 History and Culture
HIS 1130 Themes in Global History
HIS 2301 Survey of Colonial Latin American History
HIS 2302 Survey of Modern Latin American History
HIS 3301 History of the Southern Cone, Historia del Cono Sur
HIS 3306 History of Indigenous Resistance in Latin America
HIS 3308 United States-Latin American Relations
Internal Awards and Honors
Recipient, Board of Trustees International Research Travel Grant of $ 2,500, for research on book project, "Indigenous People, Internal Displacement and Environmental Collapse in Neoliberal Paraguay", and research travel to Paraguay in May 2023.
Recipient, Faculty & Staff International Travel Award of $2000, for travel to Valencia, Spain, to present a collaborative paper “Bridging Cultures and Histories through Contemporary Educational Resources,” at the INTED 2023 Conference, René Harder Horst and John R. Craft, Graphic Design, Appalachian State University. 2.3.2023
Recipient, Global Leadership Award 2020, Appalachian State University. The Global Leadership Award is an annual award to recognize students, faculty and staff who have made a significant contribution to advance global learning at Appalachian. This award recognizes extraordinary contributions of students, faculty and staff who have initiated, developed and/or supported opportunities for global learning. Recipients were recognized during the virtual Appalachian Global Symposium on Wednesday, October 28th, 2020.
Recipient, I.G. Greer Distinguished Professorship in History, 2019-2022, Department of History Appalachian State University. Three-year appointment with one semester for research and a $4,000 research stipend.
Selected Publications
Books:
A History of Indigenous Latin America Aymara to Zapatistas, Textbook of fourteen chapters, April 2020, Routledge Taylor & Francis Group, (Refereed by eleven scholars)
El Régimen Stronista y la Resistencia Indigena, Centro de Estudios Antropológicos, Universidad Católica, Asunción, Paraguay, August, 2011. (Refereed)
Military Struggle and Identity Formation in Latin America: Race, Nation, and Community during the Liberal Period, Monograph edited by Nicola Foote and René D. Harder Horst, Gainesville, University Press of Florida, Revised Paperback Edition, Fall 2012. (Refereed)
Military Struggle and Identity Formation in Latin America: Race, Nation, and Community during the Liberal Period, Monograph edited by Nicola Foote and René D. Harder Horst, Gainesville, University Press of Florida, Fall 2010.
The Stroessner Regime and Indigenous Resistance in Paraguay, Monograph, University Press of Florida, (Refereed), Revised paperback edition, (2010).
Book Chapters:
“Jañemosé hikuai mantereí” (“We are frecuently expelled”): Indigenous People in Paraguay Live Stroessner’s Legacy,” in Bridget Chesterson, ed, mss in process, Paraguay After Stroessner.
“Crossfire, Cactus, and Racial Constructions: The Chaco War and Indigenous people in Paraguay,” prepared for R. Horst and N. Foote, eds., Military Struggle and Identity Formation in Latin America, University Press of Florida, Fall 2010.
“Indigenous Integration and Legal Changes in Paraguay,” for Erin O’Connor and Leo Garofalo, eds., Gender and Race, Empire and Nation: A Documentary History on the Making of Latin America, Prentice Hall, 2009.
“Breaking Down Religious Barriers: Indigenous People and the Church in Paraguay” in Edward Cleary and Tim Steigenga, eds., Resurgent Voices in Latin America: Indigenous Peoples, Political Mobilization, and Religious Change, Rutgers University,October, 2004.
“Consciousness and Contradiction: Indigenous People and Paraguay’s transition to Democracy,” in Erick Langer, ed., Contemporary Indigenous Movements in Latin America, Scholarly Resources, April 2003.
“Indigenous people in Paraguay and Latin America's move to Democracy,” in Barbara Ganson, ed., Native Peoples, Politics, and Society in Contemporary Paraguay: Multidisciplinary Perspectives, University of New Mexico Press, Spring, 2021. (Refereed).
“Preface” in Juan Javier Rivera Andía and Cecilie Vindal Ødegaard, Indigenous Life-making Projects and Politics of Extractivism in South America: Ethnographic Approaches, Palgrave Macmillan Publishers, October 2018 (Refereed).
Invited Book Reviews:
Invited Editorial Consultant for Charlesbridge, an independent publisher, with sales and distribution through Penguin Random House, by prolific children’s book nonfiction author Sarah Albee, to review their book Bounce: The Scientific History of Rubber. This title—slated for Fall 2024—primarily focuses on the science behind rubber and how it has influenced our everyday lives, past to present. However, the text would be incomplete without also discussing the Taíno, Olmec, Maya, Aztec, and other Indigenous peoples that first created rubber from natural plants. And so it’s important that the text and art are sensitive and true in how the text does acknowledge the atrocities happened in South America, Central Africa, Southeast Asia, and other areas where natural rubber was harvested. Summer 2023-2024.
Invited Review of El Libro de Oro y su época. Historia, sociedad y patrimonio del Paraguay (1850-1890). Guillaume Candela y Delphine Demelas, editoras. Asunción: Tiempo de Historia, 2021. Fotografías, Notas, Bibliografía, Programa del Coloquio Internacional, Índice de imágines, 200 pp. Papel, Hispanic American Historical Review, August, 2023
Invited Review of the mss. article “El origen femenino del mestizaje paraguayo en la visión imperial del Embajador español en Asunción Ernesto Giménez Caballero, for journal Historia ySociedad, Universidad Nacional de Colombia, Medellín, 1.28.2022.
Invited book review, “El pensamiento conservador y derechista en América Latina, España y Portugal, siglos XIX y XX. Edited by Fabio Kolar and Ulrich Mücke. Madrid: Iberoamericana; Frankfurt am Main: Vervuert, 2019. Pp. 362. Notes. Bibliography. $41.72 paper. doi:10.1017/tam.2020.82,” in The Americas, 78, 3, July 2021, 647-649.
Invited Review of the mss. article “Autonomy, Community and Transnational Indigenismo: Alejandro Lipschütz and Mapuche Politics in Chile, 1937-1973”, for The Americas: A Quarterly Review of Latin American History, Cambridge University Press, 5.5.2021.
Invited Review of the article “The Road Ends Here: Private Enterprise, Tribal Sovereignty, and the Making of the Modern Navajo Justice System,” for History Matters, 3.27.2021.
Invited Book Review of Kirk Tyvela, The Dictator Dilemma : The United States and Paraguay in the Cold War. (Pitt Latin American Series.) Pittsburgh, Pa.: University of Pittsburgh Press, 2019, pp. x, 261., American Historical Review, October 2020.
Invited Book Review of El pensamiento conservador y derechista en América Latina, España y Portugal, siglos XIX y XX, Fabio Kolar and Ulrich Mucke, eds., Madrid, Iberoamericana y Frankfurt am Main: Vervuet, 2019, for The Americas Review, March 28, 2020.
Invited Review of manuscript Re-Imagining the South American Grand Chaco: Contemporary perspectives on Identities, Politics and the Environment in Argentina, Bolivia and Paraguay, Silvia Hursch, Paola Canova, Mercedes Biocca, eds, 460 pages. May 2020
Invited Review of manuscript of the second edition of Notable Women of Latin America, for Rowman and Littlefield Press, Oct 2019.
Invited Review of the book ¡No Llores! La historia enlhit de la Guerra del Chaco, for McGill- Queen's University Press, November, 2018
Invited Review of the article “Echar raices – El “giro antropológico” de las misiones menonitas 1940 – 1960,” for the Journal Nuevo Mundo Mundos Nuevos, 10.29.2018
Invited Review of the article “Economic Conquest of the Pacific: Revisiting the Tacna-Arica Plebiscite of 1925-6” for the Journal of World History, 4.10.18
Invited Review of the article "Being German, Paraguayan and Germanino: An understanding of social identity within the approach of ‘contextual epistemic permissibility’" for the journal Social Anthropology/Anthropologie Sociale, 13 November, 2017
Invited review of new book Thunder Shaman, Making History with Mapuche Spirits in Chile and Patagonia, by Ana Mariella Bacigalupo, Austin, University of Texas Press, for Journal Las Americas, Volume 74, Issue 03 October 2017 , pp. 551-552
Invited review of the article “The Paraguayan War and Brazilian National Identity,” by Costa, Wilma Peres, for the Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Latin American History, and submitted on 10.13.2016
Invited review of article “La Paradoja Paraguaya: Paraguayan and Indigenous Guaraní Split through Mestizaje and Language,” for The Journal of Latin American and Caribbean Anthropology, 10.7.2016
Manuscript Review of Thomas Whiggham’s manuscript, The Road to Armageddon: Paraguay Faces the Triple Alliance 1866-1870," for University of Calgary Press, December 2015.
Book Review of Kregg Hetherington, Guerrilla Auditors, the Politics of Transparency in Neoliberal Paraguay, Durham and London, Duke University Press, 2011, for A Contra Corriente, A Journal on Social History and Literature in Latin America.
Book Review of Jaime Prieto Valladares, Mission and Migration, Global Mennonite History Series: Latin America, Pandora Press, Kitchener, 2010, Mennonite Historical Review, (Fall, 2011).
Book Review of Frank O. Mora and Jerry W. Cooney, Paraguay and the United States: Distant Allies, (The United States and the Americas), Athens, University of Georgia Press, 2007. American Historical Review, (April, 2008).
Book Review of David Maybury-Lewis, The Politics of Ethnicity: Indigenous Peoples in Latin American States, for The Americas, 61:2 (October: 2004), 283-284.
Book Review of Theda Perdue's Mixed Blood Indians: Racial Construction in the Early South, Journal of Interdisciplinary History, 35: 1, Summer 2004, 148-9.
Book Review of Barbara Ganson’s The Guaraní Under Spanish Rule in the Río de la Plata for Social History, 37, No. 75, November 2004.
Article Review of Crocitti, John, “The Internal Economic Organization of the Jesuit Missions among the Guaraní,” The Social Science Review, December 2001.
Journal Articles:
Collaborative article with Hadley Cluxton, “Problematizing the Past: An Overview of Teaching the History of Science in Latin America in the Anglophone Classroom and Its Major Issues,” The History Teacher, vol. 52, 2018-2019 (Refereed).
“The Maskoy Struggle for Riacho Mosquito: An Analysis of Early Indigenous Organization in Paraguay,” Suplemento Antropológico, Asunción, Paraguay, Vol. 51-1, June, 2016, (Refereed).
Invited article “Paraguay Recognizes Indigenous rights but Ignores Laws That Defend Them,” in The Journal World Politics Review, Monday, Oc. 24, 2016.
Invited article “FARC wants a chance with the law: Are Colombians Willing?” in World Is One News, online journal in India, Oct. 03. 2016.
“The Peaceful Revolution: Indigenous Rights and Intellectual Resistance in Paraguay, 1975-1988,” Latin American and Caribbean Ethnic Studies, 5, 2, July 2010.
“Indigenous People, the Chaco War, and State Formation in a World History Context,” World History Bulletin, Fall 2006, 22, No. 2, 14-17.
“The Catholic Church, Human Rights Advocacy and Indigenous Resistance in Paraguay, 1969-1989”, The Catholic Historical Review, 88, No. 4, (October, 2002), 723-744.
“Las Comunidades Indígenas y la Democracia en el Paraguay: 1988-1992”, Suplemento Antropológico, Asunción, 36, 2, (De, 2001), 77-140.
Responsible for the Glossary in Ernesto Cardenal, Los Ovnis de Oro, The Indian Poems, Russell Salmon, ed., Bloomington, Indiana University Press, 1992 (Refereed).
Public Presentations:
“Intro to Latin American Studies at ASU,” Hispanic Heritage Festival, ASU, 17 September, 2014.
“Indigenous People: Do they have a history?” Appalachian State University, 22 July, 2014.
“Writing the History of People without Any,” History Club, Appalachian State University, 9 April, 2014.
“Writing One’s Own Textbook: Challenges and Solutions: A History of Indigenous Latin America,” History Department Research Seminar, ASU, 2 May, 2013.
“Pushing the Confines of Caste and Gender in Revolutionary Latin America,” History Department Research Seminar, Appalachian State University, 17 No, 2011.
“The Stroessner Regime and Indigenous Resistance in Paraguay,” Talk and Book Signing, Bookstore, Appalachian State University, February 14, 2008.
“The Stroessner Regime and Indigenous Resistance in Paraguay-Political and Social Dimensions,” Book Presentation, ASU Bookstore, February 14, 2008.
“Introduction to The Mission film,” History Club Movie Night, Old Belk 005, March 5, 2008.
“Teaching Indigenous Histories,” Presentation and Roundtable discussant, Conference on Latin American History at the American Historical Association meetings in Washington, DC, January 5, 2008.
“Dictadura, Mujeres y Resistencia Indígena en el Paraguay,” Sigma Delta Pi Spanish Sorority, ASU, March 21, 2007.
“Indigenous Politics and Activism in the Period of the ‘Permitted Indian’: A Move Ahead?”, History Club Forum, Student Union, ASU, February 13, 2006.
“Facing the Job Market and Interviews” (Joint Presentation with Jari Eloranta) Graduate Student Seminar Series, History Department, ASU, November 5, 2004
“Indigenous People in Latin America: Why Bother?”, in Introduction to Latin America, Josie Bortz, Professor, ASU, Latin American Studies, February 6, 2004.
“Rape, Coerced Labor and Genocide in Paraguay, 1962-1982, the Case of the Ache,” ASU Native American Council, Multicultural Room, April 24, 2003.
“Introduction to Indigenous People of Latin America,” Latin American Studies, Appalachian State University, November 13, 2001.
“Perón and Panamá: What’s the connection?” Wells High School, Wells, Maine, December 15, 1999.
“Free Trade but Closed Borders? Latin Perspectives on US Imperialism,” T.G.I.F. Series, Bates College, Lewiston, Maine, October 8, 1999.
“Twice as Much? Notes on Whites and Racism in the Southern Cone,” T.G.I.F. Series, Bates College, Lewiston, Maine, October 2, 1998.
“Native American Activism in the Early 1970s,” Blackburn College, Illinois, April 25, 1997.
“Race and Ethnic Relations in Paraguay,” Goshen College, Goshen, Indiana, November 5 and 7, 1996.
“Religion and Politics in Latin America,” Bethany Christian High School, Elementary, Intermediate and Advanced Spanish Classes, February 22-23, 1996.
Scholarly Papers Presented:
“Bridging Cultures and Histories Through Contemporary Educational Resources,” Department of History Research Seminar, Appstate University, 3.30.2023, with Dr. John Craft.
“Bridging Cultures and Histories Through Contemporary Educational Resources,” INTED 2023Valencia, Spain, with John Craft, March 6, 2023.
“Climate Change, Land Invasions, and Political Tensions in Paraguay, 2003–2007,” on Panel Tropical Landscapes in the Americas: Past and Present, 4TH North Carolina Conference on Latin American Studies, Duke University, Durham, NC, 2.18.2023.
“Encuentros Religiosos y Culturales entre los Indígenas y los Europeos,” Centro de Estudio Mennonita de Teologia Aplicada”, San Lorenzo, Paraguay, Se 19, 2019.
“Indigenous Land Tenure, Labor and Political Leverage in Neocolonial Latin America 1870-1930,” on panel “Global Trade and Development in Neocolonial Latin America: Social Results,” at the 12th Annual Appalachian Spring Conference in World History and Economics, Boone, NC, 1 March, 2017.
“La Lucha Maskoy for Riacho Mosquito: Un Análisis de Organización Indígena Temprana en el Paraguay,” V Jornadas Internacionales de Historia del Paraguay, Universidad de Montevideo, Uruguay, 29 July, 2016.
“Writing the history of Indigenous Latin America” presented for a panel discussion titled “Researching and Writing Indigenous History” that I organized for the conference Ethnicity, Race and Indigenous People, a subsidiary of the Latin American Studies Association, in Richmond VA, on 15-17 October, 2015.
“Indigenous Women and Armed Conflicts in Latin American History,” presented at the Conference “Civilians and Warfare in World History,” Florida Gulf Coast University, 24 February, 2012.
“Will Scalp for Food: Unofficial Indigenous Troops and the Chaco War from Below,” presented at the American Historical Association and Conference on Latin American History meetings in Boston, January 6, 2011.
“‘We don’t have a corner on God.’ Indigenous faith in contemporary Latin American Perspectives and Possible Implications,” 14 October 2010, Faculty and Staff Christian Fellowship, Appalachian State University.
‘“‘Inside the Stomach for 500 Years’: Latin American Independence from Below,” 5th Annual William Wilson Brown, Jr. Conference on Latin American Studies, University of North Carolina at Charlotte, 16 April, 2010.
“Indigenous Resistance and Latin American Independence,” Panel Organized and Directed, 5th Annual William Wilson Brown, Jr. Conference on Latin American Studies, University of North Carolina at Charlotte, 16 April, 2010.
“Overstated Returns during Crises: Continental Perspectives on the Economic and Military Conjunctures of the Chaco War,” Fourth Annual Appalachian Spring Conference on World History and Economics, Boone, NC April 18, 2009.
“The Stroessner Regime and Indigenous Resistance in Paraguay, the Religious Dimension,” Carol Grotnes Belk Library, February 21, 2008.
“Teaching Indigenous Histories,” Presentation of paper and Roundtable discussant, Conference on Latin American History at the American Historical Association meetings in Washington, DC, January 5, 2008.
“The Peaceful Revolution: Professional Indians, Dollars, and the Construction of Popular Dissent in Paraguay, 1970-1989,” presented at LASA meetings, Montreal, September 5, 2007.
“Indigenous People, the Chaco War, and State Formation in a World History Context,” presented at SEWHA Conference, ASU, October 20, 2006.
Organized and chaired the panel “War, Protest and Identity: Military Struggle and the Formation of Race, Community and Nation in World History, 1850-1950,” SEWHA, 10/Panel Chair and Organizer, “Indigenous and Afro-Latin American Peoples, Military Conflicts and Identity in turn-of-the-century Latin America,” LASA 2006, San Juan, PR, March 14, 2006
“Cross Fire, Cactus and Racial Constructions: Indigenous People and the Chaco War of 1932-1935,” delivered at LASA 2006, San Juan, Puerto Rico, March 14, 2006
"The Chaco War from Below: Paraguay and Bolivia, 1932-1935, Departmental Research Seminar Series, ASU, February 22, 2006.
“Religion in Native American Societies,” in class “Religion in America”, Rick Laws, professor, Wilkesboro Community College, Wilkesboro, North Carolina, January 20, 2006.
“Formas Ordinarias de Exclusión: La Dictadura y Política Indígenas en los Años 1956-1992,” Asociación Indigenista del Paraguay, Asunción, May 25, 2005.
“Teaching Nonviolence through World History”, Graduate Brown Bag Seminar Series, History, Department, Appalachian State University, November 19, 2004.
“Building an Alternative to Militarism: World History from a Nonviolent Perspective”, Southeast World History Association, University of Alabama in Huntsville, 23 October, 2004.
“Native American Religions,” in class “Religion in America”, Rick Laws, professor, Wilkesboro Community College, Wilkesboro, North Carolina, June 8, 2004.
“Encounter between Europeans and Indigenous Peoples in the Americas”, Eastern Mennonite University, Harrisonburg, VA, November 21, 2003.
“New Voices in the Sanctuary: Indigenous Influence on Christian Denominations in Paraguay”, Eastern Mennonite University, Harrisonburg, VA, November 21, 2003.
“‘For the Liberation of Indigenous People’: Anthropologists and Human Rights in Paraguay, 1970-1989”, Anthropology Colloquium Brown Bag Series, Appalachian State University, November 19, 2003.
"Earthly Paradise or Indigenous Community? Historiography, Labor and the Myth of the Paraguayan Jesuit Missions," Phi Alpha Theta Faculty Speakers Series, Appalachian State University, Boone, February 11, 2002.
“Contesting Frontiers: Intranational Colonialism, the Ache and Human Rights in Paraguay, 1958-1992,” American Historical Association, San Francisco, January 5, 2002.
“The Ache, Human Rights and Frontier Expansion in Late 20th Century Paraguay” Phi Alpha Theta, Appalachian State University, Boone, November 12, 2001.
“Colonialism and Consciousness: The Maskoy Struggle for Riacho Mosquito” Latin American Studies Association, Washington DC, September 7, 2001.
“Authoritarianism, Indigenous Resistance and Religious Missions in Paraguay, 1958-1992,” Appalachian State University, March 27, 2000.
“Political Advocacy and Religious Allegiance: Catholic Missions and Indigenous Resistance in Paraguay, 1982-1992,” Latin American Studies Association, Miami, March 13, 2000.
“Opposition to Military Rule in the Southern Cone” State University of New York at Fredonia, February 17, 2000.
“Consciousness and Contradiction: Indigenous People and Paraguay’s Transition to Democracy;” Panel Organizer, “Regional Perspectives on Indigenous Policy and Resistance in Latin America,” American Historical Association, January, 2000.
“Indigenous People and Military Rule in Paraguay”, New England Council on Latin Americn Studies, Yale University, October 16, 1999.
“Coercion, Consciousness and Contradiction: Paraguay, 1958-1989” University of Iowa, Iowa City, January 22, 1999.
“Integrating Indigenous People into Active National Life:” The Discursive Framework of Government-Indian relations in Paraguay, 1958-1989,” Bates College, Maine, June 10, 1997.
“Authoritarianism, Indigenous People, and Religious Missions: Indian Policy during the Stroessner Dictatorship,” Goshen College, Goshen, Indiana, September 26, 1996.
“Integrating the Indians into Active National Life: The Discourse of Government Indian Policy, Paraguay 1958-1992,” Indiana University, April 23, 1996.
"Authoritarianism, Indians and Missions: Paraguay, 1954-1989," Dialogos Series, Indiana University, February 9, 1994.
External Positions
Editorial Board Member, Suplemento Antropologico, Catholic University, Asuncion, Paraguay
Title: Professor
Department: Department of History
Email address: Email me
Phone: (828) 262-6007
Fax: (828) 262-4976