Robert McCaa

Academic Employment History:

  • 1992- Professor, University of Minnesota
  • 1984-92 Associate Professor, University of Minnesota
  • 1978-83 Assistant Professor, University of Minnesota
  • 1974-78 Instructor, Latin American History, University of Minnesota
    • Educational Background:
  • 1978 PhD awarded, UCLA. Dissertation: "The Demographic Transition in Chile: The Population History of the Petorca Valley, 1840-1976"
  • 1972-74 Research Associate, Cambridge Group for the History of Population and Social Structure, Cambridge University (England)
  • 1970-72 Dissertation research, Chile
  • 1969-70 Demography, Population Studies Center, University of Pennsylvania
  • 1969 Statistics, Inter-University Consortium for Political Research, University of Michigan
  • 1966-69 Graduate Study in History, University of California, Los Angeles
  • 1964-66 Peace Corps, Colombia
  • 1960-64 BA, Linfield College (McMinnville, Oregon)
    • Fellowships and Grants:
  • 1995 McKnight fellow, University of Minnesota (June-September).
  • 1994 Plumsock Fund grant, Latin American Population History Bulletin.
  • 1993 Research fellow, Australian National University (June-August).
  • 1990 Visiting professor, l'Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales (May-June).
  • 1989-90 Fulbright-Hays Research Abroad Fellowship to Brazil, Argentina, Chile, Costa Rica and Mexico.
  • 1988-89 University of Minnesota single quarter leave, Mexico.
  • 1987-94 University of Minnesota publication grant for Latin American Population History Bulletin
  • 1986-87 University of Texas Archival Restoration grant.
  • Tinker Foundation Archival Restoration grant (renewal).
  • University of Minnesota research grant.
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  • 1985-86 Tinker Foundation Archival Restoration grant.
  • University of Minnesota research grant.
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  • 1983-84 University of Minnesota research grant.
  • Bush Foundation sabbatical fellowship.
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  • 1973-74 Population Council Fellowship, Cambridge University.
  • 1971-72 Fulbright-Hays dissertation fellowship, Santiago Chile.
  • Population Council research grant.
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  • 1969-71 Foreign Area Fellowship for dissertation research.
  • 1966-69 NDEA Title VI Fellowship for graduate study at UCLA.
    • Publications (* referreed) 1998
  • *"Inoculation: An Easy Means of Protecting People or Propagating Smallpox? Spain, New Spain and Chiapas, 1779-1800," forthcoming: Boletín Mexicana de Historia y Filosofía de la Medicina, vol. 2, nueva época (septiembre 1998).
  • *"Is education destroying indigenous languages in Chiapas?"; co-author: Heather M. Mills. In press.
    • 1997
  • "Descenso de la fecundidad y modos de uniones matrimoniales en Mexico: casos de Chihuahua y Puebla", Actas de la VII Jornada Nacional de Historia Regional de Chile 1996. Santiago: Universidad de Chile, Departamento de Ciencias Historicas, pp. 59-78.
  • "Latin American demographic history in the age of the World Wide Web: National census samples as historical sources," in Dora Celton (ed.) Fuentes utiles para los estudios de la poblacion americana. Quito: Abya-Yala, pp. 379-384.
  • "Families and Gender in Mexico: a Methodological Critique and Research Challenge for the End of the Millennium," in IV Conferencia Iberoamericana Sobre Familia: Historia de Familia, Bogota: Universidad Externado de Colombia Centro de Investigaciones Sobre Dinamica Social, pp. 71-83.
    • 1996
  • *"Matrimonio infantil, cemithualtin (familias complejas), y el antiguo pueblo nahua," Historia Mexicana 46:1(jul-sept), 3-70. (English text posted on web)
  • "The Big Killers: Mortality Crises in Social Context", Social Science History, 20:4 (Winter), 553-557; Author of introduction and guest editor.
  • *"Tratos nupciales: la constitucion de uniones formales e informales en Mexico y Espana, 1500-1900," in Pilar Gonzalbo and Cecilia Rabell (eds.), La Vida Privada (Colegio de Mexico), 21-57.
    • 1995
  • *"Spanish & Nahuatl Views on Smallpox and Demographic Catastrophe in Mexico," Journal of Interdisciplinary History, 25:3 (Winter), 397-431.
  • *"Fue el siglo XVI una catastrofe demografica para Mexico? Una respuesta basada en la demografia historica no cuantitativa," Cuadernos de Historia, 15 (Diciembre), 123-136.
  • "Population History of Spanish America," in Barbara Tenebaum (ed.), Encyclopedia of Latin American History, 4:435-439.
    • 1994
  • "Child Marriage and Complex Families Among the Nahuas of Ancient Mexico", Latin American Population History Bulletin, 26 (Fall), 2-11.
  • "Latin American Demography", in Peter N. Stearns (ed.), Encyclopedia of Social History.
  • *"Marriageways in Mexico and Spain, 1500-1900", Continuity and Change 9:1(May), 11-43.
    • 1993
  • *"Gender in the Melting Pot: Marital Assimilation in New York City, 1900-1980", Journal of Interdisciplinary History 24:2 (Fall), 207-231.
  • *"The Peopling of 19th Century Mexico: Critical Scrutiny of a Censured Century", in Statistical Abstract of Latin America, vol. 30, 603-633. Abbreviated Spanish translation: "El poblamiento del Mexico decimononico: escrutinio critico de un siglo censurado", in El poblamiento de Mexico. Una vision historico-demografica, Mexico, D.F.: Consejo Nacional de Poblacion.
  • *"Inverse Population Projection Benchmarks: England, Sweden, and a Modern Standard", in R. Schofield and D. Reher (eds.), Old and New Methods in Historical Demography, Oxford: Oxford University Press.
    • 1992
  • *"Comment la projection inverse se comporte-t-elle sur des donnees simulees?", en Alain Blum, Noel Bonneuil et Didier Blanchet (eds.) Modeles de la demographie historique, Paris: Institut National des Etudes Demographiques, Congres et Colloques Nº 11. co-author: James W. Vaupel.
    • 1991
  • *"La Viuda viva del Mexico borbonico: sus voces, variedades, y vejaciones", in P. Gonzalbo (ed), Las familias novohispanas siglos XVI-XIX, Mexico: El Colegio de Mexico, 299-324.
  • "Female and Family in Nineteenth Century Latin America", Journal of Family History vol. 16 number 3, guest editor.
  • "El celibato, la union y el matrimonio en Chile", in Historia de la familia chilena, Santiago de Chile (Spanish translation of Chapter 3 of "Marriage and Fertility in Chile").
  • *"La posicion de los padres, la inclinacion de los novios, y las reglas de la feria nupcial de Parral, 1770-1814, Historia Mexicana, 40:4(abril-junio), 579-614.
    • 1990
  • *"Marriage, Migration, and a Willingness to Settle Down: Parral (Nueva Viscaya), 1770-1788", in D. Robinson (ed.), Migration in Colonial Latin America, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
    • 1989
  • *"Isolation or Assimilation? A Log-linear Interpretation of Australian Marriages, 1947-1986", Population Studies 43:1 (March), 155-162.
  • "The Female Population of Chile, 1855-1964: A Microcomputer Balance Sheet Method", Latin American Population History Bulletin 15 (Spring), 9-14.
  • *"Populate: A microcomputer projection package for aggregative data applied to Norway, 1736-1970", Annales de Demographie Historique, 287-298.
  • *"Women's Position, Family and Fertility Decline in Parral (Mexico), 1777-1930", Annales de Demographie Historique, 233-243; reprinted: Actas del Primer Congreso de Historia Regional Comparada, Ciudad Juarez: Universidad Autonoma de Ciudad Juarez, 205-218.
  • "Populate From Births and Deaths to the Demography of the Past, Present, and Future", manual and micro-computer program in Humphrey Institute Center for Population Analysis and Policy working papers series, 89-06-02.
  • "Conference on the Population History of Latin America: A Report and Paper Abstracts", Latin American Population History Bulletin 16 (Fall, 1989), 2-10.
    • 1988
  • *"Migracion y Sociedad: El caso de Parral Chihuahua, 1777, 1930", in Thomas Calvo and Gustavo Lopez (eds.), Movimientos de Poblacion en el Centro-Occidente de Mexico. Mexico City: Centro de Estudios Mexicanos y Centroamericanos, 265-279.
    • 1985
  • "Orphanhood and Adult Mortality in the Past: A Critique of Latin American Data and Procedures", Latin American Population History Bulletin, V:1(Fall), 7-10. Spanish translation in Notas de Poblacion, 13:38 (Agosto), 55-64.
    • 1984
  • *"Calidad, Clase, and Endogamy in Colonial Mexico: The Case of Parral, 1788-1790", Hispanic American Historical Review, 64:3 (August), 477-502.
  • *"Microcomputer Software Designs for Historians: Word Processing, Filing and Data Entry Programs", Historical Methods, 17:2 (Spring), 68-74.
    • 1983
  • *"Measuring Miscegenation: Percentages, Cohen's Kappa and Log-linear Models", Comparative Studies in Society and History, 25:4 (October), 711-720. Co-author: Stuart Schwartz.
  • *Marriage and Fertility in Chile: Demographic Turning Points in the Petorca Valley, 1840-1976. Dellplain Latin American Series, Westview Press, Boulder, Co.
    • 1982
  • *"Modeling Social Interaction: Marital Miscegenation in Colonial Spanish America", Historical Methods, 15:2, 45-66.
  • "Population History Symposia at the 44th Congress of the Americanists", Latin American Population History Bulletin, 3:1 (Spring), 12-13.
  • "Social Theory and the Log-linear Approach: The Question of Race and Class in Colonial Spanish America", Discussion Paper No. 76, Department of Geography, Syracuse University. Co-author: Michael Swann.
    • 1981
  • "A New Approach for Analyzing Population Data: Log-linear Models of Tables of Counts", Latin American Population History Bulletin, 2:4 (Fall), 39-46.
    • 1979
  • *"Race and Class in Colonial Latin America: A Critique", Comparative Studies in Society and History, 21:3, 421-433. Co-authors: Stuart Schwartz and Arturo Grubessich.
    • 1978
  • *"Figures, Facts and Fallacies: The Population of Colonial Venezuela", Latin American Research Review, 13:1, 195-199.
  • *"Chilean Social and Demographic History: Sources, Issues, and Methods", Latin American Research Review, 13:2, 104-126.
    • 1975
  • "La documentacion historico-demografica del `Norte Chico', Chile", in Fuentes para la demografia historica de America Latina. Mexico: Centro Latinoamericano de Demografia y Comision de Historia Economica Cuadernos 2:241-284. Co-author: Rene Salinas Mesa.
    • 1972
  • Chile: XI Censo de poblacion (1940). Recopilacion de cifras publicadas por la Direccion de Estadistica y Censos. Santiago: Centro Latinoamericano de Demografia.

    • Software (available from: http://www.hist.umn.edu/~rmccaa/programs)
  • Populate: a population projection program for historians and their students based on Ron Lee's inverse method
  • Smam: estimates the mean age at marriage from census data using Hajnal's method.
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    Scholarly Responsibilities:
  • Editorial Board, Hispanic American Historical Review, 1998-.
  • Editorial Board, The Americas, 1998-.
  • Editor, Latin American Population History Bulletin, 1985-present.
  • Vice-president, International Commission of Historical Demography, 1990-present.
  • Board member, Latin American correspondent, International Bibliography of Historical Demography, 1990-present.
  • Chair, Committee on Population and Quantitative History, Conference on Latin American History, American Historical Association, 1986-91.

    • Classes Taught:
  • Survey of Latin American History: prehistory-present (3 quarter sequence)
  • History of Mexico: The 19th and 20th Centuries.
  • Contemporary World History Survey, 1945-present.
  • History of Chile and Peru in Modern Times.
  • Topics in Latin American History: The Mexican Revolution, The Cuban Revolution, Guerrilla Warfare and Revolution, Human Rights, Food.
  • Latin American History Proseminars: Colonial and Modern Historiography, Race and Class, Militarism, Population.
  • Latin American History Seminars: Social History; Family, Marriage and Reproduction; Population History.
  • Quantitative Methods of Historical Research.
  • Methods of Historical Demography.

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