My dissertation is entitled "Conscript Nation: Authority and Belonging in the Bolivian Barracks, 1900-1958." I successfully defended my prospectus on April 22, 2008.

 

Dissertation Prospectus

 

My dissertation explores the Bolivian military barracks as a site of state formation and changing individual and collective identifications over the course of the twentieth-century. I show how the profile of the conscript population has changed in terms of place of origin and ethnicity, which I understand to be fluid and situational, based on the intersection of shifting socio-cultural markers such as dress, hairstyle, language, diet, surname, schooling, occupation, region, residence, and income. Using memoirs and oral histories, I analyze young men’s motivations for serving and how their sense of themselves as men, citizens, Bolivians, and members of specific ethnic- or class-based communities changed during their time in the barracks. My dissertation elucidates the labor experience of military service, which included road building, agricultural work, domestic service in the homes of officers, and the violent repression of other Bolivians. I also analyze the role of conscription in government actors’ modernizing visions for the nation and in the way that communities engaged with the state. Rethinking the history of Bolivia’s turbulent twentieth century through the military, my dissertation offers a new interpretation of nation, society, and the meaning of citizenship.

 
Current President Evo Morales during his military service. Source: Pablo Stefanoni and Herve Do Alto. Evo Morales: De la coca al Palacio. (La Paz: Malatesta, 2006)

Conscripts being rounded up for the Chaco War.
Source: http://www.britannica.com
"Robber Indians" captured by Lt. Servastky (far right) during the Chaco War. Also note the five conscripts guarding the captives. Source: Rene Arze Aguirre. Guerra y conflictos sociales. (La Paz: Centro de Estudios de la Realidad Económica y Social, 1987)