GeneralSpace (Georgia Gwinnett College)

History Professor Publishes Book
On Mapuche People’s Struggle Against Slaver

Rawls, Richard

GGC School of Liberal Arts News: Scholarship! 
History Professor Publishes Book 
On Mapuche People’s Struggle Against Slavery 
News Released September 2023    # 30   SLA Contact Info: liberalarts@ggc.edu 
     Dr. Eugene Berger, associate professor of history, celebrat-
ed the publica on of a book with the University of Alabama 
Press. The culmina on of many years of research and two dec-
ades of curiosity, This Incurable Evil inves gated the resistance 
of the Mapuche people to Spanish enslavement in the late six-
teenth and seventeenth centuries. The Mapuche lived in southern Chile 
and Argen na. 
     The “incurable evil” to which the book’s tle referred related to Spain’s 
insa able appe te for human labor. “The Mapuche knew that the Spanish 
were sending captured and enslaved members of their community to 
work in Lima, La Serena and San ago,” Berger explained. “They fought 
and nego ated not just to resist ‘an outsider’ but also to prevent their 
own enslavement for much of the 17th century.” 
     Some people are cognizant of Spain’s greed for gold but forget that 
many of its ci zens profited off enforced labor. Enslavement was not le-
gal, but the monarchy failed to protect people groups who were technical-
ly its ci zens. “Spanish governors, judges and their families were all 
profi ng from the illegal capture and sale of Mapuches, no ma er how 
many mes the Spanish Crown banned the prac ce nor how crea ve 
these bans became,” Berger observed.  
     It can be difficult for any scholar who has studied a topic like this to 
avoid the inevitable rabbit holes or demons of digression. Berger credited 
both the ongoing shi  in his own thinking and the encouragement of the 
editors at the University of Alabama Press (UAP). “The UAP board helped 
me refine the perspec ve to one of resistance, which matches current 
historiographic trends.” For Berger, this focus helped him clarify the direc-
on his scholarship was heading in any event. “The narra ve on indige-
nous communi es when I started was one of demographic devasta on 
and technological disadvantage, but we and I have been moving away 
from that [interpre ve perspec ve] more and more.” 
     Berger earned his doctorate and masters degree in history from Van-
derbilt University. He earned his bachelors degree in history from 
Willame e University, in Oregon. Prior to teaching at GGC, he taught at a 
Missouri Southern State University in Joplin.                      By Richard Rawls 
The 2023 book’s cover, above. A map 
showing the approximate range of the 
Mapuche people in Chile and Argen -
na. The Mapuche remain a part of 
poli cal discussions in Chile. 


GGC School of Liberal Arts News: Scholarship!

Biodiversity information of headwater stream fish community in Little Mulberry Park in Gwinnett County and DNA sequence information for single sample of Semotilus atromaculatus (Creek Chub

Doss, Elizabeth

Georgia Gwinnett College

Little Mulberry_Semotilus atromaculatus_Doss

Katherine Pinzon

2023-11-28 Senate Meeting Agenda

Resolution for a Vote of No Confidence

DRAFT 8-31 Resolution No Confidence

2023-10-03 Senate Meeting Minutes

DRAFT 10-3 Resolution NC

SLA Creates Board of Visitors (BOV): “Big Deal for SLA

School of Liberal Arts Newsletter - Number 23

Pinzon, Katherine

2023-10-26 Senate Meeting Agenda

GGC School of Liberal Arts News: Scholarship 
SLA Sociologist Combines with Others 
to Inves gate, Make Recommenda ons  
on Gender and Sexuality in the Classroom 
 SLA News # 22, February 2023.       SLA Contact Info: liberalarts@ggc.edu 
GGC Associate Professor of Sociology Marni Brown joined a growing 
number of scholars who put the isola on of Covid into produc ve use 
both “inside” and outside of the classroom. She teamed with Baker A. 
Rogers and Martha Caldwell to write Gender and Sexuality in the 
Classroom: An Educator’s Guide. In good SLA News fashion, we en-
couraged Brown to reflect upon the process of both wri ng and learn-
ing. An interview provides insights into that process. 
What is the origin story of your book?  Had its authors collaborated 
on other research, or was this your first project together?      
The editor of our book approached me with the idea of crea ng a 
gender and sexuality resource for teachers. Our editor was working 
on a series tled An Eye on Educa on, and she wanted a text focusing 
on gender. I told her I wanted to write it with a team in order to pro-
vide different perspec ves, especially since I did not have a back-
ground in the K-12 classroom. Baker and Martha had some familiarity 
with each other but that was further solidified once I recruited them 
into the project. Baker is a gender and sexuality scholar, and she has a 
master’s in social work and stellar publica on record. Martha spent 
over 20 years in the middle school classroom and now plays a cri cal 
role for an educa onal consul ng firm, Ichange.org. She has wri en 
three other books that are also guides for teachers but with an em-
phasis on race, class, and gender.  
The book has three authors, but the individual contribu ons are not 
iden fied. Can you say something about how the three authors 
wrote the book? 
As feminists, we wrote the book collec vely. We outlined the chap-
ters as a team and then each of us took the lead on about 2-3 chap-
ters. The book was re-worked a few mes based on feedback from 
the editorial team and reviews. As sociologists, Baker and I were very 
interested in social structure, ins tu onal stability, and teacher iden-
ty process. Martha, who has a strong background in the (con nued) 
Book Cover, above, and 
Brown, below.  
Gender and Sexuality in the Classroom Con nued 
classroom, was able to reign in some of sociologi-
cal analysis and make sure it was accessible for 
teachers. We went through a round or two of edits 
a er each chapter, mee ng and reviewing both 
the comments and the new version of the chapter. 
We were also fortunate to have two contributors 
who were GGC graduates. Both Alex Mack and Ka-
leigh Burch took classes with me and worked on 
gender projects in class. I asked them if they would 
like the opportunity to read versions of the book in 
mul ple forms and provide feedback. 
In addi on, Alex Mack created the 
cover and many of the images.   
Publishers some mes impose page 
limits, and these necessitate painful 
cuts. What would you have liked to 
include or expand upon but were un-
able to do so due to page constraints? 
Fortunately, we did not run into painful cuts per 
se, but the publisher did cut some sec ons and 
content. This was most evident when it came to 
lengthy examples. I would have liked an interac ve 
site where we could update the glossary and re-
source guide. It would be useful as a place to com-
ment on state and educa onal policy. Routledge 
was not able to support such a resource. 
Were there any difficul es that you encountered 
that took the book in unan cipated direc ons? 
We wrote this book during Covid and all three of 
us were working from home. Martha had begun 
facilita ng on-line teacher workshops while Baker 
and I made the transi on to on-line teaching; a lot 
changed. We began to take advantage of Zoom 
but at the same me, so much was shi ing due to 
the pandemic. As we wrote the book Donald 
Trump issued a federal declara on arguing that 
sex (anatomy) and gender (iden ty of heart, mind, 
and appearance) were the same, even though they 
are not. We began to feel the tension regarding 
gender educa on. The climate was becoming even 
more strict. GLADD (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual,  
Transgender and Queer (LGBTQ) media advocacy or-
ganiza on) reported that as of July 15, 2022, at least 
121 bills have been proposed around the country tar-
ge ng transgender people and youth. That includes 
36 healthcare bans in 22 states, and 66 sports bans in 
36 states. We knew the book was important despite 
some risk. 
In the final chapter the authors discuss “gendered 
bullying.” Given the fact that most bullies were 
themselves bullied at some point in their lives, how 
do we stop the bully and the bul-
lying while also libera ng the bul-
ly from what makes that person a 
bully?  
Why someone bullies and the con-
text for why bullying might happen 
is larger than the bully. We live in a 
society that has promoted “bully culture” involving 
power, control, and dominance. We know bullying 
also happens beyond and outside of school, however 
youth spend a large majority of their me at school. 
School is an ins tu on where we can intervene, ana-
lyze, and address how prac ces and policies enforce 
certain behaviors. Our book argues that inclusive 
classrooms, which highlights student centeredness 
and values student’s diverse iden es, assists in stu-
dents feeling welcomed, heard, and seen. 
How did wri ng this book change either what you 
teach or how you teach?  
I have a new understanding of gender iden ty, sexual 
iden ty, and roman c orienta on. I have always had 
a research interest in these subjects; my disserta on 
looked at gender and sexual iden es. Yet, in the last 
15 years much has changed, including the discussion 
of roman c orienta on. I am mindful of these chang-
es in my teaching, both at the formal and informal 
level. At the formal level, when I teach about gender 
and sexuality, I try to provide historical and contem-
porary informa on and examples.  Info: Gender and 
Sexuality in the Classroom: An Educator’s Guide. New 
York: Routledge, 2022. ISBN: 978-0367634629  
We live in a society that  
promotes “bully culture”   
involving power, control and 
dominance. We know  
bullying also happens 
beyond and outside of school. 
Interview by Richard Rawls 
