Paulo Contreras has been teaching Latin American history for fifteen years. His areas of specialty are Modern Latin American History and U.S.-Latin American Relations, with a particular focus on Latin America in the Cold War. He has a Ph.D. in Latin American History, an M.A. in History, and a B.A. in Political Science and History all from the University of Connecticut. His doctoral dissertation examines U.S.-Peruvian relations during the Alliance for Progress in the 1960s.
Dr. Contreras was born in Lima, Peru and came to the United States at the age of fifteen seeking better educational opportunities. Growing up in Peru, he has experienced and lived through several of the topics and events that are explored in the courses he teaches, such as the persistent struggle for democracy, economic development, and social justice; dictatorship, economic chaos, revolutionary politics, and migration. He encourages his students to systematically analyze and think critically about the historical processes that constructed the world they live in while making history relevant to their present-day lives.
