Bio

Manuel (Manny) Medrano is a PhD student in Latin American History at Harvard University. In 2022, he completed an MPhil in Social Anthropology at the University of St Andrews, where he was a Marshall Scholar. He also holds a BA in Applied Mathematics from Harvard College, magna cum laude with highest honors (2019).

At Harvard, Manny studies texts, artifacts, and scientific practices from the pre-Columbian Americas (especially the Andes) and the history of their transmission, reception, and study around the world.

He is an expert on quipus — the knotted string recording devices that fulfilled the function of writing in the Inca Empire of South America. In addition to ongoing decipherment efforts, Manny studies quipus held in worldwide collections. He is the author of Quipus: Mil años de historia anudada en los Andes y su futuro digital (Quipus: A Thousand Years of History Knotted in the Andes and its Digital Future), a Peruvian National Literature Prize-nominated book on the state of the field (Planeta, 2021).

Manny is committed to public engagement aimed at popularizing Latin American history. His research has been featured by NPR, Google Arts & Culture, the Boston Globe, CBC, iHeartRadio, and NewScientist, among other outlets.