Carmen Diana Deere Papers

The collection contains documents, publications, audiovisual and digital materials that relate to the academic career of Dr. Carmen Diana Deere. The Carmen Diana Deere Papers contain six series that are arranged thematically, alphabetically and chronologically except in some subseries of the Research series, where the order is maintained in the order received from the donor. Dr. Carmen Diana Deere served as Director of the University of Florida Center for Latin American Studies from 2004-2009, materials related to her directorship have been separated and can be found in the Records of the University of Florida Center for Latin American Studies Office of the Director.

Series 1: Personal Papers - consists of three sub-series: General documents, Teaching and Mentoring documents, and Correspondence.

Series 2: Research - consists of the following subseries: Dissertation; Latin American Agriculture; Empowering Women Book project; Cuban Agriculture; Women and Wealth; Ecuador Study for GAGP; Other projects, 2010-2025; Pamphlets and Documents of rural Women's organizations; and Digitized Pamphlets and Conference Documents, Empowering Women Book Project.

The Dissertation subseries has materials from her doctoral dissertation research in Cajamarca, Perú (1975-1976) and follow-up trips (1981 and 2017.) Funded by a Social Science Research Council Doctoral Fellowship, she spent fifteen months carrying out primary research in the province of Cajamarca. She was hosted by the Programa de Estudios Socioeconómicos of the Proyecto Cajamarca-La Libertad (PESE-PCLL), a research program funded by the Ford Foundation and affiliated with the Ministry of Agriculture. The project concluded not long after her arrival and she was left in charge of editing some of the community case studies produced by the project, studies which are included in the collection, along with other project reports and drafts of hacienda studies.

The Latin American Agriculture subseries covers her early research on the peasantry, on rural women in Colombia and Nicaragua, and on the agrarian reforms in Central America; research training workshops that she organized and participated in; and several book projects organized with PACCA (Policy Alternatives for the Caribbean and Central America), an NGO.

The Empowering Women Book Project subseries of the Research series covers materials pertaining to the comparative research project of twelve countries Carmen Diana Deere undertook with Magdalena León between 1995 and 2001 that led to the book Empowering Women. The materials were kept in the original order received and were not re-arranged chronologically. The subseries consists of the background information on the project and the list of folders prepared for the Women in Development (WID) online collection by Carmen Diana Deere, and includes documents on how the book project evolved from the 1995 Beijing 4th World Conference on Women; funding proposals and reports to the Ford Foundation; correspondence related to the organization of the workshops and seminars in each country; transcripts of interviews and/or discussion at these meetings, and materials related to the book tours undertaken in 2000 presenting the book in each country. This subseries also includes documents related to Carmen Diana Deere’s follow-up research on rural social movements in Brazil under a Fulbright-Hayes Faculty Research Fellowship in 2000, and on her subsequent research on land policy and rural social movements.

The Cuban Agriculture subseries has four subseries: General and Early Research, the MacArthur Project, American Colonies in Cuba, and the University of Florida Cuba Program. It consists of Carmen Diana Deere's research in Cuba between 1981 and 2018, most prominently in the early 1990s when she was a co-PI of the MacArthur Foundation project on Agrarian Transformation in Socialist Societies and co-coordinator of the Cuba study with Niurka Pérez of the Rural Studies Team of the University of Havana. In 1991, she spent approximately twelve months carrying out field research in three municipalities (Guines, Santo Domingo and Majibacoa). In 1996, Dr. Deere was the Bacardí Scholar at the Center for Latin American Studies and carried out research for her article on the American Colonies in Cuba (1998, HAHR). After coming to Florida in 2004 as Director of the Center, she led the development of the Cuba Program and was subsequently part of the team that developed a collaborative research program with the University of Havana on the links between Cuba and Florida agriculture, a research program funded by LAAD.

The Rural Women's Organizations subseries includes pamphlets and conference documents by Latin American rural women movements and government agencies that focus on rural women that were collected by Carmen Diana Deere and Magdalena León over several decades in conjunction with their research for their Empowering Women (2001) book, and to Deere's subsequent research in Brazil on a Fulbright Fellowship.

Series 3: Journals and Publications series - contains articles and books published by Carmen Diana Deere, Magdalena León, and others. Note, some publications are stored separately in the Research series under their respective subseries.

Series 4: Center for Latin American Studies and LASA publications series - contains selected issues of the Latinamericanist journal, and selected LASA annual International Congress programs.

Series 5: Posters - contains posters related to the LASA International Congresses, Historic Sandinista posters, posters from various countries' rural women’s organizations, two art posters from Nicaragua about agriculture, and a Sandino illustration by Minero.

Series 6: Audiovisual series - contains materials related to Carmen Diana Deere’s research and legacy, and includes interviews of Carmen Diana Deere done in Cuba, Brazil, and the United States.