Antonio Sotomayor

Ph.D.

Personal profile

Personal profile

Antonio Sotomayor is an associate professor and the Latin American and Caribbean Studies Librarian at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. He has aditional faculty appointments in the Departments of History, and Spanish and Portuguese, where he has served on various MA thesis and PhD dissertation committees. His book, The Sovereign Colony: Olympic Sport, National Identity, and International Politics in Puerto Rico (winner of SALALM's 2017 José Toribio Medina Book Award), was published by the University of Nebraska Press in 2016. In 2020 he co-edited with Dr. Cesar R. Torres the book Olimpismo: The Olympic Movement in the Making of Latin America and the Caribbean (finalist in the 2021 Best Anthology Award from the North American Society for Sport History). His work appears in journals such as The Latin AmericanistHispania NovaThe AmericasCaribbean Studies, and The International Journal of the History of Sport, among others. His next book project studies the intersections of religion, US imperialism, and sport through the YMCA in Puerto Rico and Cuba (1898-1950s). He is the Past-President of the Seminar on the Acquisition of Latin American Library Materials (SALALM), the principal international organization of librarians, archivist, and bookdealers with interest in Latin America and the Caribbean.

Research Interests

Cultural and Identity Politics
Nationalism and National Identity
Sports and Leisure
Spanish Caribbean History
Colonialism

Professional Information

Dr. Sotomayor's research views sport as a window to observe and analyze politics, culture, and national identity in Latin America and the Caribbean. He also does research on historical genealogy and family history in Modern and Colonial Latin America.  

Works in progress:

* Sotomayor, Antonio. Religious Games: The YMCA, Sport, and Imperial Statecraft in Cuba and Puerto Rico, 1898-1940s. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press (under contract).

* A multi-volume edition of the collection of almost 300 letters from the family of the Conde de Montemar, 1761-1799. 

* Articles on Puerto Rican family history during the 16th, 17th, and 18th centuries. 

Honors & Awards

Finalist 2021 Best Anthology Award, North American Society for Sport History, NASSH.

Office Address

313 Main Library
University of Illinois
1408 West Gregory Drive
Urbana, IL 61801

Education/Academic qualification

History, PhD, The University of Chicago

20062012

Award Date: Jun 12 2012

Latin American and Caribbean Studies, MA, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign

20042006

Award Date: May 15 2006

Counseling, MS, Indiana University Bloomington

20012004

Award Date: May 15 2004

Psychology, BA, University of Puerto Rico-Mayaguez

19952000

Award Date: May 15 2000

Fingerprint

Fingerprint is based on mining the text of the expert's scholarly documents to create an index of weighted terms, which defines the key subjects of each individual researcher.
  • 1 Similar Profiles

Collaborations and top research areas from the last five years

Recent external collaboration on country/territory level. Dive into details by clicking on the dots or