ABSTRACT
This essay explores the historiography of US–Latin American scientific relations, emphasising its contributions to theorising power dynamics in scientific practice and the production of knowledge. This literature has long been divided into two distinct strands: one focusing on US science and empire and the other on the development of national scientific communities in Latin America. While both emerged in conversation with mid-twentieth-century models of scientific diffusion, they have each developed with their own particular preoccupations. The former has emphasised how imperial expansion shaped US scientific institutions and culture, while the latter has focused on questions of science, economic development, and dependency. Since the 2000s, more space for cross-fertilisation between scholarship based in Latin American countries and the United States has opened up, particularly as work became increasingly multi-archival and transnational. Historians have begun to recognise how US–Latin American encounters shaped participants and ideas on all sides. New approaches to the history of US–Latin American scientific relations are emerging that recognise the complex dynamics of power and knowledge across a range of colonial and postcolonial contexts.
