Mantilla Morales Awarded First Book Prize for 2026 by Oxford University Press

Valeria Mantilla Morales, assistant professor in the College of Arts and Sciences Department of History, was recently named one of 10 winners of the Oxford University Press First Book Prize for early career researchers in the humanities and social sciences.

Mantilla Morales won for her book, Navigating Amphibious Lives along the Magdalena River: Histories of Free People of Colour in Colombia, 1560-1860. Winners were selected from almost 100 submissions by a Global Prize Committee following a rigorous, three-stage review process, which included external peer review.

The prize-winning books will be published fully open access on OUP's Oxford Academic platform, with a full open access fee waiver, in addition to publication in hardback. In supporting open access publication for exceptional early career researchers, OUP aims to make this work available to a wide audience, both within and beyond academia, unlocking opportunity for those at the start of their careers.

From the committee: "Morales' book is an original contribution to environmental and Latin American history. Her concept of 'amphibious culture' helps us understand in a new way how free people of colour related to land and water, and her proposed periodization around steam navigation rather than independence is an important general intervention in modern Latin American history. Her attention to figures like the bogas (boatmen) on the Magdalena River gives a voice to an understudied population. Drawing across history, literature, and anthropology, and grounded in an impressively varied Spanish-language archive, this book bridges environmental humanities and the history of race in a truly new way that will appeal to specialists and general readers alike."

Mantilla Morales' research and teaching sit at the crossroads between cultural history and the environment in Latin America and the Caribbean during both the colonial and the republican period. She underscores historical narratives of indigeneity, African diaspora, and racial mixture, and her work employs interdisciplinary methods ranging from food studies to Latin American studies and environmental history, all of which she brings into the classroom.

"The Department of History is thrilled that Oxford University Press has awarded our colleague Professor Mantilla Morales the prestigious First Book Prize for 2026, which will support the open-access publication of her monograph, Navigating Amphibious Lives along the Magdalena River: Histories of Free People of Colour in Colombia, 1560-1860," said Shobana Shankar, professor and chair of the College of Arts and Sciences Department of History. "Her ground-breaking history shows how free people of color, despite their subordinated status, used their expertise in riverine ecologies to challenge the colonial government that aimed to limit their freedoms and access to land. Professor Mantilla Morales's book illuminating the experiences of marginalized historical actors is sure to make an important and original contribution, and Oxford's First Book Prize will ensure that it is widely available."

"This is a thrilling new initiative that champions the transformative power of humanities and social science research, which enables us to understand our world and its complexities in fundamental ways," said Nandini Das, professor of Early Modern English Literature and Culture at the University of Oxford and an adviser on the First Book Prize. "At a time when the higher education landscape and such research are both under ever-increasing pressure, the OUP First Book Prize will provide a global platform for excellent and original research from the next generation of scholars."