Biography
Dr. Yovanna Pineda is a tenured associate professor at the University of Central Florida, specializing in the history of technology, environment, and development in Latin America, with a focus on Argentina. She authored the book Industrial Development in a Frontier Economy (Stanford University Press, 2009), which examined business groups' investment practices, including the financing of machinery and repair parts for development. Currently, she is co-editing a special series, Latin American and Caribbean Technocultural Worlds, for the journal History of Technology and revising a second monograph, The People’s Factory: Labor, Machines, and the Making of Agro-Industrial Argentina, 1860–2020. Drawing on a decade of oral histories, archival records, and fieldwork, The People's Factory argues that Argentina's industrial modernity was built and sustained through the labor, improvisation, and everyday acts of maintenance by which ordinary people turned imported machines and fragile state projects into durable agro-industrial identity. She has also built an extensive record of collaborative, interdisciplinary research spanning technology studies, digital humanities, and economic history.
Education
- Ph.D. in Latin American and Economic History from University of California Los Angeles (2002)
- Certificate in Statistical Methods from University of Michigan, Ann Arbor (1997)
- M.A. in Latin American History from University of California Los Angeles (1996)
- B.A. in History and Latin American Studies from University of California Los Angeles (1994)
Research Interests
- History of Latin America with a focus on Argentina
- History of Technology & History of Science
- Industrialization and Deindustrialization
- Post-Industrial Capitalism & Neoliberalism
Recent Research Activities
Research Interests
- History of Latin America with a focus on Argentina
- History of Technology & History of Science
- Industrialization & Deindustrialization
- Post-Industrial Capitalism & Neoliberalism
She is co-editing a series on the aesthetics of technology in Latin America with Diana J. Montaño (Washington University in St. Louis) and Mikael Wolfe (Stanford University), for a special series in the journal History of Technology and as an edited volume entitled Latin American and Caribbean Technocultural Worlds. This work examines Latin American technological aesthetics and design through an in-depth study of state modernization projects in urban and rural environments, as well as individual users who reimagined or reconfigured the aesthetics of technological devices as these devices were domesticated in their contexts of use. Expanding the concept of sociotechnical imaginaries scholars in this volume (1) explore how these imaginaries are/were informed and are informed by the politics of design and aesthetics (2) underline the way these imaginaries are not only textual but visual and aural, (3) and, how users altered and reinvented the aesthetics/design of technological devices to meet their cultural and personal values, needs and desires.
Publications
Books
- Yovanna Pineda (2009). Industrial Development in a Frontier Economy: The Industrialization of Argentina, 1890-1930, Stanford University Press.
Films
- Yovanna Pineda (2019). Stories of the Harvester, https://vimeo.com/395115057, Producer and director.
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Yovanna Pineda (2018). Los Contratistas, https://vimeo.com/manage/videos/646706700, Producer and director.
- Yovanna Pineda (2017). Las Reinas, Producer and director.
Articles/Essays
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Yovanna Pineda (2022). "Spaces of Design & Repair in Twentieth Century Argentine Factories," Histories of Maintenance and Repair Workshop. Université du Luxembourg, C2DH Luxembourg Centre for Contemporary and Digital History.
- Yovanna Pineda (2021), "Conducting Digital and Ethnographic/Participatory Action Research during COVID." Featured in, H-LATAM, Research Corner Blog.
- Yovanna Pineda (2020). "Ways of Seeing Maintenance and Repair," Argentina, Technology Stories, vol. 8, no. 2 (September).
- Yovanna Pineda, Christiane Berth, & Mikael Wolfe (2020). "Dialogues: History of Technology in Africa and the Americas in the Twentieth Century,” Technology Stories, vol. 8, no. 2 (September).
- Emily Johnson, Amy Giroux, and Yovanna Pineda (2020). Work-In-Progress Paper: Context is Key in Immersive Learning Environments, Immersive Learning Research Network (iLRN), conference proceedings, Summer, no. 129.
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Yovanna Pineda (2020). "International and Local Collaboration in the Social Design of the Harvester in Argentina during the Long Twentieth Century (1900-2010)," Historia Agraria de América Latina (HAAL, ISSN 2452-5162), April, 1(1): pp. 70-93.
- Yovanna Pineda (2019). "The Future of Work in a Historically Volatile Economy: Case Study of Farm Machinery Factories in Argentina," The Journal of International Affairs, 72:1 (Winter): 159-171.
- Yovanna Pineda (2018). "Farm Machinery Users, Designers and Government Policy in Argentina, 1861-1930," Agricultural History (Summer).
- Yovanna Pineda (2018). "Civic Engagement and Empowering Our Students," Women, Gender, and Families of Color in special issue, "Trump's America? Disquiet Campus? Marginalized College Students, Faculty, and Staff Reflect on Learning, Working, Living, and Engaging," Vol. 6, no. 1 (Spring): 132-134.
- Yovanna Pineda (2018). “Graffiti Art, Protest and Memory in the Plaza de Mayo, Buenos Aires City.” The Metropole (The Official Blog of the Urban History Association). Special Series Metropolis (May).
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Yovanna Pineda (2017). “Gendering Poverty in Labor Legislation in Argentina, 1900-1930,” Activist History Review. Special Issue on Poverty.
- Yovanna Pineda (2017). El ‘Nilo de Argentina’: Proyectos para el manejo del agua y medio ambiente a lo largo del Río Negro, 1880-1910, (“The ‘Nile’ of Argentina: The Irrigation Projects of the Río Negro, 1880-1910”), translated by Maria Eugenia Vásquez. Revista de Historia Internacional (ISTOR), Special Series on Environmental History, Año XVIII, No. 69 (Summer).
- Yovanna Pineda (2016). History and Belonging: First-Generation Latino/a Students and the Discipline’s Future. Perspectives on History, Newsmagazine of the American Historical Association (December).
- Yovanna Pineda (2009). "Financing Manufacturing Innovation in Argentina, 1890-1930," Business History Review, Vol. 83 (Autumn), 539-562.
- Yovanna Pineda (2007). "Manufacturing Profits and Strategies in Argentine Industrial Development, 1904-1930," Business History, Vol. 49, no. 2 (March), 186-210.
- Yovanna Pineda (2006). "Sources of Finance and Reputation: Merchant Finance Groups in Argentine Industrialization, 1890-1930," Latin American Research Review, Vol. 41, no. 2 (June), 3-30.
Book Sections/Chapters
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Yovanna Pineda (2023). “Using Virtual Reality to Immerse Students in the Middle Passage: Ethics, Challenges, and Benefits,” in Melody Bowdon, Kevin Yee, and William Dorner, editors. Ethical Considerations of Virtual Reality in the College Classroom: Cross-Disciplinary Case Studies of Immersive Technology Implementation (New York: Taylor & Francis).
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Yovanna Pineda & Lucas Izquierdo (2022). “Framing the Future: The Take, Nine Queens, and Argentina’s Neoliberal Soundscapes.” In Christopher Ballengee, editor. Music, Sound, and Documentary Film in the Global South. Lexington Books, Rowman & Littlefield.
- Yovanna Pineda (2018). "The Developmental State and the Agricultural Machinery Industry in Argentina," in edited volume, State and Nation-making in Latin America and Spain, 1930-1990 (Cambridge University Press).
Miscellaneous Publications
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Yovanna Pineda (2021), "Law to Protect Free Speech Actually Endangers it," Orlando Sentinel, OpEd, 23 July.
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Mikael Wolfe and Yovanna Pineda (2021). "Biden should admit past U.S. interference in foreign elections," Orlando Sentinel, OpEd - https://www.orlandosentinel.com/opinion/guest-commentary/os-op-biden-election-interference-history-2...
Awards
UCF Awards and Sabbaticals
- Sabbatical Award, Type IA (Competitive), College of Arts and Humanities, UCF, 2023-2024
- Research Incentive Award, College of Arts and Humanities, UCF, 2018-2019
- Excellence in Research Award, College of Arts and Humanities, UCF, 2018-2019
- Sabbatical Award, Type IB (Competitive), College of Arts and Humanities, UCF, 2016-2017
Academic Research Awards and Appointments
- Research Fellow | Consortium for the History of Science, Technology, and Medicine | Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, 2024-2025
- Visiting Associate Professor | Department of History | Stanford University, Stanford, California, Spring 2015
- Visiting Scholar | Center for Spatial and Textual Analysis | Stanford University, Stanford, California
- Santander Visiting Scholar, David Rockefeller Center for Latin American Studies | Harvard University, 2009-2010
- Visiting Library Scholar | Center for Latin American Studies | University of Florida, Gainesville, Florida, Summer 2011
- Visiting Library Scholar, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, Summer 2008
- Library Scholar | David Rockefeller Center for Latin American Studies | Harvard University, Summer 2003
- PI Seongho An, UCF; Yovanna Pineda (CoPI), “Game Space or Grooming Space: A Text-Based Artificial Intelligence Tool to Detect Human Trafficking Recruitment in Online Games and Social Media,” UCF College of Arts and Humanities, 2026-2027.
- PI Winifred Poster, Washington University in St. Louis; Yovanna Pineda (Research Collaborator), “Hammer and Keyboard: Crisis Moments in Labor and Technology,” Albert Lepage Center for History in the Public Interest, Villanova University, Awarded, 2025-2026.
- PI Mikael Wolfe, Co-PI Yovanna Pineda, and Co-PI Diana Montaño, “History of Latin American Aesthetics, Technology, and Design,” Workshop Grant, Center for Latin American Studies, Stanford University, Workshop held May 23-26, 2024.
- PI Diana Montaño and Co-PI Yovanna Pineda, “Latin American and Caribbean Technocultural Worlds: Histories of Design, Aesthetics, and Practice,” Collaborative Research Seed Grant, University of Washington in St. Louis with Diana J. Montaño, 2023-2024.
- PI Christiane Berth, University of Bern, and Yovanna Pineda (Research Collaborator), Workshop Grant, Swiss National Science Foundation for Co-organizer with Dr. Universität Bern, Bern, Switzerland, 2017-2018.
- Anastasia Salter and Mel Stanfill (Co-PIs). (Yovanna Pineda, Participant), “Summer 2026 Digital Humanities Faculty Generative AI Learning Community,” National Endowment for the Humanities, May-July 2026.
- Yovanna Pineda (PI), “Spectacular Bodies: Aesthetics of Labor & Technology in Argentina” (Memory and Historical Narratives of Work-Life), Research Fellowship, awarded by the Consortium for History of Science, Technology, and Medicine, 2024-2025.
- Yovanna Pineda (PI), “Historical Research of the Brazilian Slave Experience,” Mid-career Research Program. Grant to Advance Virtual Reality Middle Passage Experience Project, University of Central Florida, 2020-2023.
- GaIM Strategic Plan Innovation Award for Digital tool Namthar, with PI Matthew Mosher, Yovanna Pineda (CoPI), and Lori Walters (Co-PI), University of Central Florida, fall 2019 ($ 2,500 for GRA).
- Yovanna Pineda (PI), “Plowing Toward Modernity: Technological Change, Society, and Development in Argentina’s Agricultural Sector, 1860-1940.” Summer Stipends Award, National Endowment for the Humanities, Washington, D.C., 2014.
- David William Foster (PI). (Yovanna Pineda, Participant), “Ethnicity and Migration in the Argentine Pampas,” Summer Seminar on Jewish Buenos Aires, National Endowment for the Humanities, Washington, D.C., 2014.
- Yovanna Pineda (PI), Research Development Travel Award, College of Arts and Humanities Research Office, University of Central Florida, 2013
- Yovanna Pineda (PI), Research Incentive and Development, Type 1 Award, College of Arts and Humanities, University of Central Florida, 2012.
- Yovanna Pineda (PI), In-House Research Award, College of Arts and Humanities and the Office of Research and Commercialization, UCF, 2011-2012.
- Yovanna Pineda (PI), Equipment and Software Support Grant for Teaching, Center for the Humanities and Digital Research, UCF, 2011.
Courses
| Course # | Course | Title | Mode | Days/Times | Syllabus |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 93118 | HIS3462 | History of Science | Web-Based (W) | 12:00 AM - 12:00 AM | Unavailable |
| 83802 | LAH4503 | History of South America | Mixed Mode (M) | M,W 10:30 AM - 11:20 AM | Unavailable |
| Course # | Course | Title | Mode | Days/Times | Syllabus |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 13008 | LAH4738 | Urban Design of Latin America | Web-Based (W) | 12:00 AM - 12:00 AM | Unavailable |
| 19643 | LAH4780 | Poverty & Devel in Latin Amer | Web-Based (W) | 12:00 AM - 12:00 AM | Unavailable |
| Course # | Course | Title | Session | Mode | Days/Times | Syllabus |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 59837 | LAH3130 | Early Latin America | A | Web-Based (W) | 12:00 AM - 12:00 AM | Unavailable |