Ernesto Bassi

Ernesto Bassi is an Associate Professor in the Department of History at Cornell University, where he also serves as Director of the Latin American and Caribbean Studies Program (LACS). Based in the College of Arts and Sciences, his work bridges Africana Studies, Romance Studies, and the Society for the Humanities.

His research explores how circulation of goods, people, and ideas shaped geographic and cultural identifications in the Caribbean and Latin America. He examines the transimperial Greater Caribbean from the perspective of coastal communities, particularly focusing on Colombia's Caribbean region. His work intersects with studies of early modern globalization, indigenous-European encounters, and the Atlantic flow of commodities that contributed to capitalism's rise and plantation societies.

Central to his scholarship is a commitment to transnational historiography and decolonizing geographic narratives. His book An Aqueous Territory (2016) reconfigures Caribbean spatial understanding through sailor geographies. His 2020 article with Javier Puente in Age of Revolutions interrogates visa holders' intellectual contributions to US academia, while his 2018 article in the Journal of Latin American Studies analyzes hemispheric solidarity projects in colonial Colombia.

As an educator, he teaches students to critically analyze patriotic narratives and the geopolitical purposes behind them. He advocates for international students' role in enriching US universities through their transatlantic perspectives and decolonial methodologies.