My PhD research

The title of my thesis is “Managers from the British World: Imperial Trajectories and Labour Regimes in the Sheep Farming Industry of Southern Patagonia and Tierra del Fuego (1858–1964)”. In detail, it proposes a transnational analysis of the management of labour disciplines, focussing on the influence that managers established to shape them within the sheep farming industry at Patagonia and Tierra del Fuego from the late-nineteenth to mid-twentieth century. Through the revision of local and British world sources from different actors, the main methodological approach is biographical, tracking cases of sheep farming managers’ practices, studying personal connectedness and transmissions from their backgrounds in mid-nineteenth century Britain and the British Empire, to their local agencies and relationships in the mentioned Patagonian context.

Patagonia and Tierra del Fuego, in Southern Argentina and Chile, became increasingly integrated into globalized capitalism, especially from 1876 with the arrival of sheep from the Falkland Islands. Skilled workers, shepherds and managers arrived to the region mostly from different parts of Britain and the British Empire, majorly driving the regional stations (ranches/estancias) and refrigeration sites labour regimes. Therefore, by approaching to representative and different managerial experiences in the relationship and/or exertion of control over workers, this project firstly has the local historiographical intention to extend the understanding of the establishment of different British-world sheep farming labour disciplines in Patagonia, challenging homogenizing definitions of those practices.

My research adheres to Global Labour History efforts, studying relationships between employers and subaltern workers by analysing the shaping of Patagonian sheep farming labour disciplines into a bigger picture of influences and transmissions of know-hows. Here, it comprehends British power in South America through extended private forms of control, aiming to outspread the understanding of their “informal” incidence, specifically in the Patagonian sheep farming industry. More broadly, it is associated to a decolonial effort by highlighting imperial backgrounds and social makings in regional borderlands. Hence, it makes critical and diverse points of view about localized capitalist mechanisms and its consequences, situated in the broad context of unequal global commodity-based economic processes, where subaltern working classes under British managed labour regimes experienced different conditions and/or contradictions.

Interests

• Global Labour History.
• History of Commodity Frontiers.
• History of Latin America, specially of Patagonia and other borderlands (19^th-20^th centuries).
• History of imperialism, settler colonialism and “informal empire” (19^th-20^th centuries).
• Economic History of modern industrial and rural metropolitan and colonial spaces.
• Environmental History, specially grasslands.
• Animal History.
• History of migrations.
• Micro-global History approaches.
• Biographical approach.
• Public History.

Professional development

My first and significant work experience was in Santiago de Chile from 2011, as Teacher of History in different diverse secondary schools, following with some undergraduate teaching and tutoring. Between 2016 and 2019 I worked as research assistant with archival material in different projects, remarkably two with ongoing contributions through academic publications about history of colonization and indigenous population in Patagonia during 20^th century (FONDECYT Nº 1181386 and FONDAP Nº 15150003). During 2018, I was awarded with a scholarship for a stay as a short-cut fellowship at the Bielefeld Graduate School of History and Sociology, Universität Bielefeld (Germany), where I was able to begin the formulation of a research project about labour disciplines in Patagonian sheep farming in a transnational perspective and discussing it with international academic staff.

My academic contributions (see the details bellow) are linked with the trajectory that I began with my MA thesis achieved in 2015, writing about labour disciplines in the biggest sheep farming company in that region: the "Sociedad Explotadora de Tierra del Fuego" in late-nineteenth and early-twentieth centuries. Since I was coursing that programme and later, I attended to expose my progress in different seminars and congress in Chilean universities. Before the start of my PhD studies, I also participated in publishing collaborations in books complied by academics in the Universidad de Santiago de Chile in 2018 and 2019, and published my first journal article about my research topic.

From April to late-August 2021, I was also part-time working in a project (FONDART 2021) called "Río Seco en el imaginario del estrecho de Magallanes: Una mirada hacia nuestro Patrimonio Industrial", with the Museo de Historia Natural de Río Seco (Natural History Museum of Río Seco). Here, I helped in the collecting of unpublished material and memories from old workers and families about the old freezing works of Río Seco, a locality near the city of Punta Arenas (Chile). The aim of this project was to set up a museum exhibition in the near future and to create a repository of newly available sources for research.

Finally, from October 2021 to June 2023 I complied with teaching duties at the Department of History here at the University of Warwick. Specifically, I taught seminars and workshops in the "Making of the Modern World" module and lectures in the "Latin America: themes and problems" module, both for undergraduate students.

Academic profile

• January 2020-March 2024: PhD in History, University of Warwick.
• March 2013-September 2015: MA in History with mention on History of Chile (“Magíster en Historia, mención Historia de Chile”), Universidad de Santiago de Chile.
• March 2006-May 2011: BA in Education in History and Social Science (“Licenciado en Educación en Historia y Ciencias Sociales”) with Professional Tittle on State Teacher of History and Social Science (“Profesor de Estado en Historia y Ciencias Sociales”), Universidad de Santiago de Chile.

Scholarships-Awards

• ANID (“Agencia Nacional de Investigación y Desarrollo”) Chile Doctoral Scholarship: “Becas Chile para Doctorado en el Extranjero, convocatoria 2019” (January 2020-February 2024).
• Start-Up Programme at Bielefeld Graduate School in History and Sociology (BGHS), Universität Bielefeld, Germany: short-cut scholarship (April-July 2018). URL: https://www.uni-bielefeld.de/(en)/bghs/Personen/Fellows/startup_fellows.html

Academic publications

• Gómez Baeza, Nicolás, 'Capitalist connectivity, labour isolation: British-managed estancias in inland Tierra del Fuego, 1897-1944'. Fletcher, Robert and Reichardt, Alec Zuercher. Inlands: Imperial Formations, Contested Interiors, and the Connections of the World. Columbia University Press (forthcoming 2024-2025). 
• Gómez Baeza, Nicolás. "Los británicos sobre la Patagonia Rebelde: Informaciones y clasificaciones acerca del trabajo ovejero de la región Fuego-patagónica (1899-1949)". Revista Latinoamericana de Trabajo y Trabajadores, 5, enero 2023: 1-27, https://doi.org/10.48038/revlatt.n5.68.
• Gómez Baeza, Nicolás. “Vigilancia, represión y disciplina laboral en la Sociedad Explotadora de Tierra del Fuego (1910-1919)”. Izquierdas, 49, enero 2020: 123-140,

  http://dx.doi.org/10.4067/S0718-50492020000100208.

• Gómez Baeza, Nicolás. “Migración de trabajadores en la Sociedad Explotadora de Tierra del Fuego. Prácticas, representaciones y experiencias de una cultura empresarial transnacional, 1910-1919”. Palomera, A; Boric, L; Norambuena, C. Migraciones e integración. Camino recorrido y desafíos pendientes. Ril Editores, 2019: 193-216.
• Gómez Baeza, Nicolás. “Disciplinamiento laboral ganadero y conflicto en Magallanes: la administración de la Sociedad Explotadora de Tierra del Fuego y los trabajadores (1893-1919).” Venegas, Hernán. Empresas, empresarios y trabajadores, Chile siglos XIX y XX.”. Departamento de Historia, Facultad de Humanidades, Universidad de Santiago de Chile, 2018: 17-54.

Review

• “Nicolás Gómez Baeza on Dire Straits: Patagonia and the Magellan Circumnavigation at 500 (conference review).” In: H-Maps, 22 February 2022. URL: https://networks.h-net.org/node/4879599/discussions/9768014/nicol%C3%A1s-g%C3%B3mez-baeza-dire-straits-patagonia-and-magellan

Conference presentations (from 2018)

• 5-7 July 2023: Social History Society Annual Conference, University of Essex. Name of contribution:

  'Like Jesús and Mary: children and women labour experience in the Patagonian sheep farming industry (1880-1960 c.)'

• 29-30 June 2022: 'Climate, Capital and Tourism in the Americas' (online conference). Name of contribution: “Memorias de trabajo: formas de apropiación comunitaria en el Museo de Historia Natural Río Seco”, with Miguel Cáceres and Camila Oliva.
• 10 June 2022: UK Latin American Historians Network Conference, University of Bristol. Name of contribution: 'Managers from the British World: approaches and preliminary results to study sheep farming industry labour regimes in southern Patagonia and Tierra del Fuego (1876-1961).'
• 26-27 May 2022: History Department PG Conference 2022, University of Warwick. Name of contribution: 'Managers from the British world: a methodological approach to study Patagonian sheep farming industry labour regimes.'
• 29 November-2 December 2021: 'Unfinished Business', Australian Historical Association Annual Conference, Online Event hosted by the University of New South Wales. Name of contribution: 'Workers from the Southernmost. Narratives on labour history of Patagonia and Tierra del Fuego.'
• 25-27 November 2021: Jornadas Internacionales “Centenario de la Huelga Rural Patagónica: Conflictos Obreros de Principios del Siglo XX”, Universidad Nacional de la Patagonia Austral. Name of contribution: “Los 'gringos' y la Patagonia Rebelde: diagnósticos desde el mundo británico sobre el trabajo, trabajadores y conflictos laborales en la ganadería ovina de Magallanes, Santa Cruz y Tierra del Fuego (1897-1961).”
• 26-29 May 2021: LASA (Latin American Studies Association) Virtual Congress. Name of contribution: “Administraciones británicas del mundo del trabajo en la ganadería ovina: comparación de particularidades y discusiones conceptuales (Patagonia y Tierra del Fuego, 1876-1950 c.)”
• 10 June 2020: Warwick Postgrad Podcast series. Department of History, University of Warwick. Coventry, United Kingdom. Participation in episode Latin America in Transnational Perspective. URL: https://warwick.ac.uk/fac/arts/history/students/postgrad_life/pg_conference/previous/2019-2020/
• 28-29 November 2018: I Jornadas de Historia del Trabajo: Experiencias laborales en Chile Contemporáneo. Universidad de Santiago de Chile. Santiago, Chile. Name of contribution: “Visiones sobre administradores británicos en la ganadería de Magallanes: Avances y reflexiones para historias del trabajo y el empresariado regional.”
• 15-20 July 2018: 56th International Congress of Americanists (ICA). Universidad de Salamanca. Salamanca, Spain. Name of contribution: “Cultura Empresarial Imperialista y Transnacional: prácticas y visiones de la construcción británica de espacios de producción ganadera en el Territorio de Magallanes (1910-1930)”.

Public History contributions

• 'Managers from the British World: A Global Approach to Sheep Farming Industry Labour Disciplines in Patagonia and Tierra del Fuego, 1837-1956'. Blog piece for the Global History and Culture Centre, University of Warwick. 6 May, 2021. URL: https://warwick.ac.uk/fac/arts/history/ghcc/blog/managers_from_the 

• 'Scottish Settlers in Patagonia and Tierra del Fuego: Sheep Farming Capitalisms in a South American Frontier'. Blog post for the Scottish Centre for Global History, University of Dundee. 15 September, 2020 URL: https://globalhistory.org.uk/2020/09/scottish-settlers-in-patagonia-and-tierra-del-fuego-sheep-farming-capitalisms-in-a-south-american-frontier/
• Radio Broadcasting: Main host in show “Domingos con Historia” (Sundays with History) at “Presidente Ibáñez” Radio. Punta Arenas, Chile, 2019.