Germán Vergara

Germán Vergara is an assistant professor of history with the School of History and Sociology at Georgia Tech. He received his PhD in History from the University of California, Berkeley in 2015. From 2015 to 2017, Dr. Vergara was a postdoctoral fellow in environmental history at Brown University. His research focuses on Latin American environmental history. His book Fueling Mexico: Energy and Environment, 1850- 1950 (Cambridge University Press, 2021), explains how and why modern Mexico transitioned from an agrarian society powered by animal muscle, water, and wood to an industrial society fueled by oil, coal, and natural gas. It is the first book of its kind for a Latin American country. Dr. Vergara has published articles on the history of energy, forest conservation, and animals. His second book project, Becoming History: Species Extinctions and Capitalism in Latin America Since 1800, will study the interconnected economic, political, social, and environmental factors that have caused animal (mammal, avian, and amphibian) population declines and species loss in the region over the past two centuries.

His expertise is in environmental and Latin American history and his research interests include the history of industrialization, capitalism, energy, forests, conservation, and animals.