Fernanda Bretones Lane

Fernanda Bretones Lane is an Assistant Professor specializing in colonial Caribbean, Afro-Latin America, and Atlantic World history. Her research focuses on Spain’s religious sanctuary policy and its impact on slave agency and imperial dynamics. She holds a PhD from Vanderbilt University (2019) and an MA from the University of São Paulo (2013). She has held fellowships at the Universitat Jaume I de Castellón and the Max Planck Institute for European Legal History.

Her current book manuscript examines the interplay between Spain’s religious policies and imperial strategies in destabilizing rival colonies. This research has been supported by grants from the Woodrow Wilson Foundation, the Lapidus-Omohundro Institute, and the Tinker Foundation. Her work appears in The Americas and Journal of Global Slavery.

Dr. Bretones Lane received the 2020 Sturgis Leavitt Award for her co-authored article in Journal of Global Slavery. She teaches undergraduate courses on Caribbean history, Atlantic World studies, and comparative slavery.