Diana Heredia-López

Email: dianaheredia.lo@gmail.com
Pronouns: she/her/ella
Position: Postdoctoral Fellow
Institutional Affiliation: The University of Texas at Austin
Department: Institute for Historical Studies

Regions of Interest: All Latin America and the Caribbean, LAC in the World
Time Periods: Conquest/Early Colonial, Late colonial/Independence Era
Subareas: Agriculture, Natural Sciences, Popular Knowledge, Technology
Keywords:
Colonial Formations Commodities



Language(s):
Spanish English French


Education:

Ph.D., The University of Texas at Austin, 2025
B.Sc., Universidad Nacional Autónoma de Méxcio, 2015


Positions Held:
About Me:

I am an interdisciplinary scholar of science and colonialism in the early modern world. My research and writing focus on commodity and knowledge production in Indigenous Mesoamerica and the Spanish Atlantic, as well as their unexpected itineraries outside these geographies. Originally trained as a biologist and historian of science in Mexico, I explore how humans have transformed the natural world into distinct visual and material cultures.

My book project, “Imperfect Reds: A New History of Cochineal Cultivation and Commerce in the Early Modern Atlantic World”, explores the early projects to produce cochineal, one of the most highly coveted red dyes in the early modern world. Following the transregional movement of dye cultivation across Central Mexico, Yucatán, Guatemala, Oaxaca, and beyond, this project traces how distinct Indigenous societies managed, negotiated, or rejected the intensified production of dye-bearing insects. In doing so, it highlights the dynamism and colonial entanglements of Indigenous knowledge, technologies, and economies.


Books:
Articles:
Other Media and Projects:
Online CV: View here
This site is registered on wpml.org as a development site. Switch to a production site key to remove this banner.