Héctor Linares is a third-year PhD candidate in History, specializing in Early Modern Global History, Race and Ethnicity and Latin America. His dissertation explores cases of Indigenous and Afro-descendants who successfully negotiated their socioeconomic and political status with the Spanish Crown and achieved aristocratic titles, positions and honors. He is the author of tewnty-one peer-reviewed articles and books chapters, and he has edited five books on Spanish nobility, ecclesiastical elites, and the Spanish Empire with some of the most prominent European publishers, including Silex, Doce Calles, Palermo University Press, and Brill. His research has been funded by numerous institutions, namely: the European Commission, the French Republic, the Folger Library, and the Spanish government. At Penn State he works under the direction of Drs. Ronnie Hsia and Amanda Scott. He is also serving as a member of the Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Committee at the Renaissance Society of America.