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Visiting Instructor, Spring 2007
Interview by Lisa Ding ‘08
 Growing up outside of Boston, Rob Karl spent plenty of time at
Dartmouth in his childhood. Both of his parents attended Dartmouth—his father
graduated Class of ’76, Tuck ’77, and his mother, Tuck ’78. Thus, coming to
Dartmouth for his undergraduate education seemed a logical choice to Karl.
As a student at Dartmouth, Karl majored in History and wrote a senior Honors
thesis titled “Under the Banner of Progress: Modernization and
Counterinsurgency in Latin America, 1961-1963,” with Professor Navarro as his
advisor (during his senior year, the door to Karl’s dorm room featured the
accompanying poster). His freshman seminar with her had essentially been on the
same topic. Karl quipped: “My freshman roommate joked that I’d been writing the
same paper since freshman year, and it’s not entirely incorrect.”
When asked about his favorite class at Dartmouth, Karl replied that the one
class that had had the most influence on his thinking was History 5.7,
“Theories and Practice of Nationalism and Liberation,” with Professor Doug
Haynes and the now-retired Professor Leo Spitzer.
A dedicated History major by his junior year, Karl also went on the History
FSP. Out of his independent research experience in London, Karl produced a
paper on “British Counterinsugency and Propaganda in Malaya, 1948-60.” Karl
recalled: “While it wasn’t my first experience with primary research, it was
certainly a substantial one,” and one that he believes played an important role
in his decision to attend graduate school.
 Karl graduated from Dartmouth in 2003, with a History major
and double minors in LALACS and Spanish Literature. Afterwards, he went
directly into the Ph.D. program in History at Harvard University. He jokingly
described the transition as “Do not pass go, do not collect $200.” Going into
his fifth year as a Ph.D. student, Karl predicted that he had two to three more
years to go.
When given the opportunity to teach at Dartmouth, Karl jumped at the chance
because it was “a dream come true.” Not only did he enjoy interacting with his
students and learning with them, but Karl admitted: “it makes me happy on a
fundamental level to turn around and see Baker Tower outside my window and hear
the alma mater at 6 p.m.”
When asked about the biggest difference between being a student and a
faculty member at Dartmouth, Karl replied with little pause: “you work harder
as faculty.” Karl explained: “students underestimate how long it takes to grade
papers.”
While he was a visiting instructor at Dartmouth, Karl was busy teaching two
courses: History 5.6 (Pre-Colombian and Colonial Latin America) and History 83
(20th Century Latin America), a course he had taken with Professor
Navarro six years earlier.
After his stint at Dartmouth, Karl was going back to Colombia on a Fulbright
Fellowship to continue the research for his dissertation. In the Colombian
National Archives in Bogotá, he planned to look through the papers of the
Ministry of the Interior to find information dealing with the politics of
violence in Colombia and the role the United States played, focusing on the
period 1955-68.
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