Reynaldo Ortiz-Minaya
Reynaldo Ortiz-Minaya
Profile Type: Faculty
School / College: College of Arts & Sciences
Department / Office: Sociology & Criminology
reynaldo.ortizminaya@howard.edu | (202) 806-6853
Born in the Dominican Republic, Reynaldo Ortíz-Minaya's areas of research reflect colonization's indelible impact on his land of birth and on surrounding islands in the Caribbean. His research includes world-historical structures of slavery (particularly in the Spanish-Caribbean); social regulatory processes; political economy; and ethno-racial labor formation. He examines the ways that systems of forced labor fluctuated and served as precursors to modern forms of penal punishment.
His forthcoming manuscript, "From Plantation to Prison: Visual Economies of Slave Resistance, Criminal Justice, and Penal Exile in the Spanish Caribbean, 1820-1886", explores the relationship between the expansion of slavery in Cuba and the rise of prisons in Puerto Rico as a means to incorporate the Spanish Caribbean into the world-market during the nineteenth century.
As a U.S. Fulbright Specialist, his additional research examines the historical relationship between forms of confinement (penal in particular) and the accumulation of profits under varying economic systems.
He serves on the board of directors for various international organizations focusing on penal reform and rule of law and has conducted research in Pakistan, Bulgaria, Hungary, Jamaica, South Africa, the Palestinian Territories, and throughout the Caribbean region.
Academic History
- Ph.D., State University of New York-Binghamton, Sociology, Highest Distinction, 2014
- Dissertation title: “From Plantation to Prison: Visual Economies of Slave Resistance, Criminal Justice, and Penal Exile in the Spanish Caribbean, 1820-1886.”
- M.A. State University of New York-Binghamton, Sociology, 2005
- B.A. Drew University, Madison, NJ, Sociology and Latin American Studies, 1998
Fellowships, Awards, and Affiliations
Fulbright Scholar Research/Teaching, U.S. Department of State, Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs (ECA); University of the West Indies, Mona, Kingston, Jamaica, 2019-2022.
Fulbright Specialist on Mass Incarceration, U.S. Department of State, Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs (ECA). On Roster: 2016-2023.
Feliks Gross Award for Outstanding Research, City University of New York (CUNY), Academy for the Humanities and Sciences, The Graduate Center, June 2019.
Humanities New York Grant Award, “Montage Quotidien: Puerto Rican Migration Through the Lens of Contemporary Art, 1970-2019”, Humanities New York, February 2019.
Affiliated senior research scholar with the Peace and Justice Network (PJN), Islamabad, Pakistan; Site Visits: January 2017; January 2018; April 2018.
National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH), Digital Humanities, “Race, Space, Place in the Digital and Spatial Humanities”. Digitized History of Prisons and Workhouses in the British and Spanish Caribbean, 1815-1875, Purdue University, June 2016; April 2019.
CUNY Mellon Transfer Student Research Fellowship, City University of New York, December 2016. Claire and Leonard Tow Faculty Research Travel Fellowship, City University of New York, Brooklyn
College, December 2016.
William Stewart Travel Award for National & International Conferences, City University of New York, Brooklyn College, December 2016.
The Ethel and Herman L. Midlo Center for New Orleans Studies, University of New Orleans. Affiliated Research Scholar. May 2016- May 2020.
Hamilton College Faculty of the Year Service Award, May 2016.
Hamilton College, Educational Opportunity Program Faculty Recognition Award, May 2016.
The Binghamton University Graduate Student Teaching in Excellence Award - State University of New York, May 2014.
Walter Rodney Research and Activist Award for the Worldwide Study of the African Diaspora, State University of New York-Binghamton University, March 2012; May 2013.