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Santiago Bestilleiro Lettini is a historian of Latin America. His research explores the intersection of political, economic, and environmental history in the Río de la Plata region. His present project analyzes the transformation of the transnational grasslands that currently cover eastern Argentina, Uruguay, and southern Brazil in the long nineteenth century. By exploring the trajectory of the region throughout state formation processes and the expansion of agrarian capitalism, his work studies changing evaluations of natural resources and perceptions of potential productivity. Originally from Buenos Aires, Santiago earned a bachelor’s and master’s degree in history from Universidad Torcuato Di Tella, Argentina, before moving to Washington, DC, to pursue his PhD at Georgetown University.
RCC Research Project: The Greater Pampas: Politics, Ecology, and the Rise of Capitalism in the Río de la
Plata Grasslands (1770–1920)