Santa Arias

Santa Arias is a Professor and Department Head in the Department of Spanish and Portuguese at the University of Arizona. She holds a Ph.D. from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Her work centers on spatial analysis in colonial studies, focusing on early modern Iberian imperialism (XV-XIX centuries), with emphasis on historiography, geographical discourses, and visual representation.

Her research adopts a transoceanic perspective, examining how colonial power structures were articulated through space, place, and nature. Key projects include The Nature of Empire: Geo/graphing the Tropics during the Enlightenment, exploring geographical thinking in late colonial discourses, and Entanglements from San Juan, analyzing Puerto Rico's Bourbon-era geopolitical thought.

Awards include a National Endowment for the Humanities Fellowship and CIES/Fulbright to Colombia. Her five co-edited volumes include Mapping Colonial Spanish America (2002) and Coloniality, Religion, and the Law (2013). She emphasizes transdisciplinary methods, combining archival research with spatial analysis to advance colonial studies.

Her publications span over three decades, from early work on Bartolomé de las Casas' rhetorical strategies (1990s) to recent studies on Caribbean Enlightenment thought. She trains students in critical methodologies linking geography, imperialism, and cultural production.