Bianca Premo

Bianca Premo is a Distinguished University Professor of History at Florida International University (FIU), where she also serves as Interim Chair of the Department of History. Her academic career includes roles at Emory University and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. She specializes in Latin American history, focusing on law, childhood, gender, and medicine, particularly in colonial and early modern contexts. Her research explores how marginalized groups, including Indigenous peoples and enslaved individuals, navigated legal systems in the Spanish Empire.

Education: Premo holds a Ph.D. in History from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (2001), an M.A. from the University of Arizona (1995), and a B.A. from the University of South Carolina (1992).

Research Interests: Her work centers on legal history, colonialism, and the intersection of law with childhood, gender, and medicine. Notable projects include studies of legal practices in colonial Peru and Mexico, the history of childhood in Latin America, and the use of digital tools to analyze colonial archives. She has been supported by grants from the Guggenheim Foundation, National Endowment for the Humanities, and others.

Publications: Key books include The Enlightenment on Trial (2017), which examines litigation in colonial Spanish America, and Children of the Father King (2005), exploring childhood and authority in 18th-century Lima. She has authored over 20 articles and chapters, with recent work on 20th-century medical cases and reproductive governance in Latin America.

Awards: Premo has received prestigious awards such as the Colonial Section Prize from the Latin American Studies Association and the Murdo MacLeod Prize from the Southern Historical Association.

Teaching and Leadership: She teaches courses on Latin American history, legal history, and the history of childhood. She has held administrative roles at FIU and served as President of the Conference on Latin American History. She leads initiatives like the “Domains” digital project mapping colonial jurisdictions and collaborates on interdisciplinary research.