Dr Anna Cant is a Latin American historian with expertise in twentieth-century politics, cultural history and rural development.
She gained her PhD in History at the University of Cambridge (2015) with a thesis on land reform in Peru. Her first manuscript Land Without Masters: Agrarian Reform and Political Change Under Peru’s Military Government was published by University of Texas Press in 2021. Comparing three different regions of Peru, the book examines the cultural and political impact of the radical agrarian reform introduced by Juan Velasco Alvarado’s military government in 1969.
Before joining the LSE in September 2018, Dr Cant spent two years as a visiting researcher at Los Andes University, Bogota (Colombia), where her postdoctoral research focused on radio education in rural Colombia during the 1960s and 70s. The project examined in particular the ideas of rural modernity that were disseminated via the radio, and how these were received and contested in the countryside. Dr Cant is currently developing a new research project on the history of Catholic radio in the Andean region.
Dr Cant has taught in the UK and Colombia, and received scholarships from the Arts and Humanities Research Council and the Leverhulme Trust. She is one of the editors of Historia Agraria de América Latina and an associate member of the Centre for Global Knowledge Studies (gloknos) at Cambridge University.
Expertise
Mass Communication, Modern Latin American History, Rural Development
Publications
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Teaching
Dr Cant usually teaches the following courses in the department:
Dr Anna Cant speko at the Catholicism and the Cold War in Latin America International conference. Anna will present new research on the International CatholicAssociation for Radio and Television and its efforts to raise consciousness of injustice and inequality throughout Latin America, amid the cultural politics of the global Cold War.
Dr Cant gave a talk on politics and communication in the Peruvian agrarian reform at the Centre of Latin American Studies (Cambridge) on 15 November. The talk provided an introduction to La Voz del Campesino, a weekly bulletin produced by members of the rural community of Huaura in the department of Lima, Peru in the 1970s. A complete collection of the bulletin is now available online through Cambridge Digital Library. Read more
Communication technologies in Latin American societies
Dr Cant and PhD Student Charlotte Eaton have produced a new podcast series. Featuring contributions from recognised experts in the field, Dr Cant provides an introduction to major themes in the emergence of new communication technologies and their impact on Latin American societies. Listen on SoundCloud.
New book
Land without Masters: Agrarian Reform and Political Change under Peru’s Military Government was released by University of Texas Press in April. Dr Cant's first manuscript offers a fresh perspective on the way the Peruvian government’s major 1969 agrarian reforms transformed the social, cultural, and political landscape of the country. Read more
New article
Dr Cant discusses radio education in the Andes during the second half of the 20th Century in Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Latin American History. The article analyses the hundreds of small radio initiatives that emerged over the course of the 1960s and 1970s across the Andes. Amid widespread illiteracy, entrenched poverty, and a mountainous terrain that limited access to state institutions and the mainstream media, radio was seen as a technology of immense promise that could increase education levels and stimulate development, leading to primarily Catholic-led radio schools. Read more
LAC History Seminar Series
Dr Anna Cant spoke at Oxford’s Latin American Centre History Seminar Series on 4 February. She discussed "Agrarian Reform and Political Change under Peru’s Military Government". Find out more.
2020
New article
"’Vivir Mejor’: Radio Education in Rural Colombia (1960-80)", published in The Americas journal, discusses how the Acción Cultural Popular’s articulation of what it meant to "live better" changed over time, reflecting the struggles of a religious organization to remain relevant in a rapidly changing world. While ACPO saw itself as the bearer of modernity, it was often confronted by independent processes of change already occurring in rural communities. Read more
2019
Conference in Paris
Dr Anna Cant recently attended the European Rural History Organisation Conference in Paris. Her paper was part of a panel on negotiating land reform programmes from the eighteenth to the twentieth century, which included cases as diverse as the Algarve in the eighteenth century and Chile under Allende’s Popular Unity government. Her paper, "Competing Visions of Peasant Mobilisation in Peru’s Agrarian Reform", discussed the ways in which local actors, including peasant communities and left-wing political parties, responded to the 1969 agrarian reform introduced by the military government of Juan Velasco Alvarado. Read more about the conference.
Staff news
Dr Anna Cant, LSE Fellow in the department 2018-19, was appointed Assistant Professor in April 2019 and will be taking up her new post from 1 September 2019. Dr Cant is a historian of Latin America with expertise in twentieth-century politics, cultural history and rural development. She gained her PhD in History at the University of Cambridge (2015) and is currently revising the thesis as a book titled Land Without Masters: Agrarian Reform and Political Change in Peru, 1968-75.
