Adriana Chira

Adriana Chira is an Associate Professor of Atlantic World History at Emory University. She holds a Ph.D. from the University of Michigan, an M.A. from Cornell University, and a B.A. from Cambridge University (UK). Her research focuses on race, law, and property in Cuba and Puerto Rico during and after slavery. Her award-winning book Patchwork Freedoms examines how enslaved and free Afro-descendants navigated legal systems to claim land and freedom in 19th-century Cuba.

Dr. Chira’s work has been supported by the National Endowment for the Humanities and fellowships at Yale and Harvard. She teaches courses on global history, Cuba, Puerto Rico, and the Caribbean. She also leads a study abroad program in Cuba focused on food sovereignty and environmental history.

Her current research includes projects on labor markets in 18th-century Cuba/Colombia, land ownership theories in Cuba, and 20th-century Puerto Rican land policies. She has published widely in journals like the American Historical Review and Law and History Review, and her work has earned multiple prizes, including the James A. Rawley Prize and Elsa Goveia Prize.

• Education: B.A. Cambridge University (2005), M.A. Cornell (2008), Ph.D. University of Michigan (2016)
• Key Awards: Outstanding First Book Prize (ASWAD), James A. Rawley Prize (AHA), Peter Gonville Stein Award (ASLH)
• Teaching: Courses include Human Trafficking in World History, Globalization: The Atlantic World, and Cuba in World History