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NOTE: This event, originally scheduled for Feb. 3, has been rescheduled for Wednesday, Feb. 11.
Marshall C. Eakin, a distinguished historian of Latin America who specializes in Brazil, will discuss his latest book on Wednesday, Feb. 11, at Vanderbilt’s Jean and Alexander Heard Libraries.
Eakin, a professor emeritus of history at Vanderbilt, will discuss Empires and Exploration: Richard Francis Burton’s Travels in Brazil beginning at 4:30 p.m. in the Central Library Community Room. The talk and a reception to follow are free and open to the public.
Copies of Eakin’s book, published in December 2025 by the University of Pittsburgh Press, will be available for purchase at the event from the Vanderbilt Bookstore. A limited number of free copies will be available to Vanderbilt students who RSVP on Anchor Link while supplies last. Students must attend the Feb. 11 event to pick up their book.
In June and July of 2022, Eakin spent six weeks retracing the travels of 19th-century British explorer Sir Richard Francis Burton across eastern Brazil. Burton had witnessed the origins and early processes of nation building in the country, including the power and influence of Great Britain on the Brazilian monarchy, which declared its independence in the 1820s. A seasoned explorer and scholar of South Asia, the Middle East, Africa and the Americas, Burton provided a panoramic view of Brazil in his writings, highlighting the obstacles created by region, race, class, religion and culture and offered advice on how to build a nation from his perspective as an iconoclastic Victorian Englishman.
In Empires and Exploration, Eakin interweaves 19th-century Brazilian history, Burton’s extraordinary life, and the use of travel writing by historians. His book follows Burton’s path and reflects on how the landscape, character and identity of Brazil have evolved.
About the author
Eakin is Distinguished Professor Emeritus of History at Vanderbilt, where he taught from 1983 to 2024. Although his work spans all of Brazilian history, his major publications have concentrated on the processes of nationalism and nation building, economic and business history, and industrialization—primarily in the 20th century. He is the author of six books, including The History of Latin America: Collision of Cultures, and Becoming Brazilians: Race and National Identity in Twentieth-Century Brazil. From 2004–11, he was the executive director of the Brazilian Studies Association.
The recipient of two Fulbright-Hayes Fellowships as well as grants from the Tinker Foundation, the National Endowment for the Humanities, the British Library, the Tennessee Humanities Council and the Corporation for National Service, Eakin received numerous teaching and advising awards at Vanderbilt. These include the Jeffrey Nordhaus Award for Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching (1991), the Chancellor’s Cup (1994), the Madison Sarratt Prize for Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching (1994), the Ernest A. Jones Faculty Adviser Award (1996), the Alumni Education Award (1999 and 2016) and a Chair of Teaching Excellence (1998–2001). In 2004–05, he held the Joe B. Wyatt Distinguished Professorship. From 2009–17, he served as faculty director of Vanderbilt’s Ingram Scholarship Program.