Kris Lane


Kris Eugene Lane is a Canadian–American Fulbright scholar, researcher, professor, and author. His areas of academic teaching and research focus on colonial Latin American history. He has written and edited several books and articles on slavery, witchcraft, headhunting, mining, human trafficking, and piracy in the Andes.
Lane is the Frances V. Scholes Chair of Colonial Latin American History at Tulane University. He previously taught Latin American History at the College of William and Mary in Virginia, is the general editor of the Colonial Latin American Review, and a member of the board of editors of the Hispanic American Historical Review.

Early life

Lane was born in Creston, British Columbia. He is the son of Rustin and Grace Fletcher. He was raised in Colorado, Texas, and British Columbia. Lane is married with one daughter. He attended the University of Colorado Boulder, graduating in 1991 with a bachelor's degree in History and Latin American Studies. In 1996, he earned his Ph.D in History from the University of Minnesota.

Career

In 1997, Lane joined the teaching staff of the College of William and Mary in Virginia, where he taught history. During his employment, he was honored as one of the school's inaugural recipients of the Joseph Plumeri Award, which recognizes the university's faculty for excellence in teaching, research, and community service. He has also served as a visiting professor at the National University of Colombia and the University of Leiden.
Lane has traveled extensively in South- and Central America and has written, edited, and collaborated in presenting his research on piracy, slavery, gold mining, headhunting, and witchcraft in colonial Ecuador and Colombia., he serves as the general editor of the interdisciplinary journal Colonial Latin American Review.
He has also edited Bernardo Vargas Machuca's work, Indian Militia and Description of the Indies and Defense and Discourse of the Western Conquests, following their translations from Spanish. Published in Madrid, the two works were training manuals for conquistadors, written in 1599 by Vargas, as an extension of his military service in Italy and South America.

Awards

Books