Originally from Jacksonville, Florida, USA, Katherine (Kate) Godfrey earned her PhD in History at the Pennsylvania State University, where she specialized in colonial Latin American history. Kate’s research and teaching interests cover a wide spectrum; however, she is most interested in early modern global history, gender and sexuality, ethnohistory, Indigenous groups of northern South America, and Latin America-U.S. relations. She has extensive archival experience (conducted in Colombian, Spanish, Mexican, and United States repositories) as well as editorial and mentorship experience, all of which she is excited to bring into the classroom and share with the broader UFV community.
Kate is currently revising her first monograph, tentatively titled Matrilineal Routes: Indigenous Kinship Networks, Gender, and Mobility in Early Modern Colombia. Research for this project has been supported by U.S. institutions and international funding bodies. Furthermore, Kate has experience leading study abroad opportunities (specifically to Colombia). Additionally, she is committed to teaching students how to read 16th-century Spanish paleography (early modern manuscripts in Spanish) and invites those interested in learning to contact her.
American Society for Ethnohistory; Conference on Latin American History; Latin American Studies Association
Colonial Latin America, Modern Latin America, Slavery and the Atlantic World, The Andes, Mesoamerica, Gender and Sexuality, Latin America-U.S. relations, History & Film
Northern South America, Colonial Latin America, Ethnohistory, Gender and Sexuality
Selected, previous 5 years:
- 2026 - “The Cacique’s Widow: Juana de Oropesa’s Multigenerational Struggle over Indigenous Tribute in the New Kingdom of Granada, 1590–1633,” American Historical Association Annual Meeting
- 2025 - “In Pursuit: Indigenous Women, Violence, and the Feminine Landscape of War in the New Kingdom of Granada” American Society for Ethnohistory Annual Meeting
- 2025 - “Matrilineal Routes: Indigenous Kinship Networks, Gender, and Mobility in Early Modern Colombia,” with the seminar “Los mundos ibéricos y la globalización temprana” at Universidad Pablo de Olavide
- 2024 - “Confronting the Caiman in the Mud: Indigenous Knowledge and Labor Practices in the 16th-Century Draining of Lake Guatavita” History of Science Society Annual Meeting
- 2024 - “Contested Power: Indigenous Women in the Colonial Americas” Roundtable participant, American Society for Ethnohistory Annual Meeting
- 2024 - “Cuestiones pendientes sobre el Nuevo Reino de Granada en los siglos XVI a XVIII” Roundtable participant, Latin American Studies Association
- 2024 - “The Pijao Market: War and Enslavement of Indigenous Women in the New Kingdom of Granada,” Renaissance Society of America Annual Meeting
- 2023 - “The Missing Sobrina: Indigenous Kidnapping and Recovery Efforts of Women and Children in Early Colonial Colombia,” American Society for Ethnohistory Annual Meeting
- 2023 - “Bajo la laguna: Mythmaking and Exploitation of Sacred Spaces in Early Colonial Colombia,” The Southwest Seminar Consortium on Colonial Latin America
- 2023 - “The Missing Sobrina: Indigenous Kidnapping and Recovery Efforts of Women and Children in Early Colonial Colombia,” American Society for Ethnohistory Annual Meeting
- 2023 - “House of Trade: Mestizo Children, Merchant Networks, and Sixteenth-Century Empire Building in Early Modern Colombia,” American Historical Association Annual Meeting
- **Panel Organizer for “Endurance and Evolution: Ecologies, Communities, and Families on the Move in the Early Modern Americas”
- 2022 - “Gendered Routes: Indigenous Paths, Trade Networks, and the Unbridled Enslavement of Indigenous Women and Children in Sixteenth Century Colombia,” Grupo de Estudios sobre la Mujer en España y las Américas (pre-1800)
- 2021 - “House of Trade: Mestizo Children, Merchant Networks, and Sixteenth-Century Empire Building in Early Modern Colombia.” Part of the seminar “‘Ongoing Mobilities’ in the Early Modern World: Sojourners, Mobile Settlers, Itinerants, Staggered Migrants, and Other Lives on the Go,” The University of Manchester
- 2021 - “‘Para hazer y edifficar la dicha villeta:’ Caciques and Encomenderos in the 1572 Foundation of La Villa de Nuestra Señora Santa María de Leyva,” Newberry Consortium in American Indian Studies
