Tim Lorek

Tim Lorek is the Community Outreach Coordinator for the Center for Latin American and Caribbean Studies. Before joining LACS, he taught Latin American History, Environmental History, and Geography at Yale University, Brandeis University, and the University of Hartford. He received his PhD in History from Yale University and his dissertation won multiple prizes including the 2019 Gilbert C. Fite Award for Best Dissertation from the Agricultural History Society. He is a scholar of Colombia, food and agriculture, and Latin American environmental history and is completing a book manuscript titled Conflicted Landscape: Agriculture, Colombia, and the Making of a Green Revolution. He is also co-editor of Itineraries of Expertise: Science, Technology, and Environment in Latin America's Long Cold War (University of Pittsburgh Press, forthcoming March 2020). He has published articles and book chapters on the U.S. Midwest and Latin America, agriculture and development, and Puerto Rico, including "The Puerto Rican Connection: Recovering the 'Cultural Triangle' in Global Histories of Agricultural Development" (Agricultural History, forthcoming January 2020). 

Tim is excited to return to his Midwestern roots and work closely with Michigan and Puerto Rican scholars, teachers, and students to design and implement curriculum and community resources. He brings a background in program coordinating, international conference organization, and interdisciplinary collaboration. He previously served as Program Coordinator for Yale University's Program in Agrarian Studies and held an Andrew W. Mellon Fellowship with the Humanities Institute of the New York Botanical Garden. He also worked previously in community agriculture in Albuquerque's South Valley and earned an MA in History from the University of New Mexico.