Iker Itoiz Ciaurriz
- Position: Teaching Fellow in Modern Latin American History
- Areas of expertise: Twentieth-Century political, social and intellectual history; Political violence in the twentieth century Europe (1936-1962). Modern Latin American History
- Email: I.ItoizCiaurriz@leeds.ac.uk
- Location: 414 Parkinson
- Website: ORCID
Profile
After receiving a BA (Hons) in History and Politicis (2014) and then an MA in Modern History (2015) from the Complutense University of Madrid, I moved to the University of Edinburgh to begin work on my PhD. under the supervision of Professor Emile Chabal. Having held a temporary teaching fellow in Modern European History at Durham University, I joined the University of Leeds in August 2024 as Teaching Fellow in Modern History.
Research interests
My research investigates the political and intellectual history of twentieth-century communism, with a particular emphasis on the transnational dynamics that connected Europe and Latin America. A defining contribution of my work is to show that Latin America was not simply an external arena of revolutionary activity but a central site of theoretical and strategic innovation that reshaped European Marxism. By placing Latin American actors, movements, and ideas at the heart of the story, I aim to reinterpret European history through a genuinely global perspective.
My book project, The Crises of Eric Hobsbawm, exemplifies this approach. Drawing on extensive archival research, including Hobsbawm’s private papers, I explore how his encounters with Latin American revolutionary movements, from Cuba to the Andes, transformed his thinking about political agency, rebellion, and the future of socialism. I argue that these experiences played a crucial role in reshaping European communist debates in moments of crisis (1956, 1968, and 1989), challenging long-standing Eurocentric assumptions about revolutionary change.
More broadly, my work shows how ideas circulated across the Atlantic during the Cold War and how intellectuals such as Hobsbawm used insights from Latin America to reassess questions of class transformation, political strategy, and the role of mass movements within European democracies. This transnational approach enables a richer and more accurate understanding of European political thought by highlighting the global interactions that shaped it.
Qualifications
- PhD in History
- MA in Modern History
- BA (Hons) History
- BA (Hons) Political Science
Professional memberships
- Royal Historical Society
Student education