Raymond B. Craib

Raymond B. Craib serves as the Marie Underhill Noll Professor of History and Associate Chair at Cornell University, where he holds core faculty appointments in the Latin American and Caribbean Studies (LACS) program and serves on the LACS Steering Committee. His interdisciplinary work bridges historical scholarship with critical geography and political theory, focusing on spatial dimensions of power and resistance.

His academic trajectory includes a BA in History from Eastern Michigan University (1990), an MA in Latin American Studies from the University of New Mexico (1994), and a PhD in History from Yale University (2001).

• Eastern Michigan University: BA History (1990)
• University of New Mexico: MA Latin American Studies (1994)
• Yale University: PhD History (2001)

Craib's research interrogates the intersections of space, politics, and everyday practice through frameworks of critical geography, cartography, and radical political subjectivity. His scholarship spans Cultural History, Social History, Comparative and Transnational History, Empires and Colonialism, Historical Geography, and Political Thought, with particular emphasis on Latin America's global connections. He challenges transnational historical orthodoxy by centering the immediacy of place while maintaining global contextual awareness, especially regarding anarchist and leftist movements.

His publications reveal a sustained engagement with libertarian and anarchist experiments across the 20th-21st centuries, examining how spatial imaginaries shape political projects from interwar Chile to contemporary Silicon Valley utopianism. Craib's work consistently analyzes the tension between state-centric cartographic control and fugitive landscapes of resistance, connecting historical case studies to modern phenomena like seasteading and digital colonialism.

Scientific recognition includes:

• Global Public Voices fellow (2020-2021)
• Graduate and Professional Teaching Prize

As an active educator and researcher, Craib mentors graduate students in historical methodology and supervises theses exploring spatial history and radical politics. His collaborative projects, such as the 2020-21 fellowship with José Ragas of Universidad Católica (Chile), demonstrate international scholarly engagement.

Craib maintains deep institutional connections across Cornell's interdisciplinary landscape, contributing to the Latina/o Studies Program and Romance Studies department while leading innovative courses like 'Starting Your Own Country: From Utopia to the Network State.' His research methodology combines extensive multi-archival work across Latin America, the Caribbean, and Pacific Islands with critical theoretical frameworks.