Art History doctoral candidate Ileana Olmos presented her research at the XVII Congreso Centroamericano de Historia (XVII Central American Congress of History), held in San Salvador, El Salvador, July 20–24, 2026. One of the largest scholarly gatherings of its kind in Central America, the congress brought together more than 400 scholars, researchers, and specialists from universities and research institutions across Central America, North and South America, and internationally for five days of presentations, book launches, and scholarly exchange.
Ileana presented “Cuerpo y soberanía cimarrona: memoria colonial y liderazgo femenino en la tradición Congo de Nombre de Dios” (“Maroon Embodiment and Sovereignty: Colonial Memory and Female Leadership in the Congo Tradition of Nombre de Dios”) in the session “Conquista, cuerpo e identidad” (“Conquest, Body, and Identity”).
Ileana’s research examines female leadership within the Congo tradition of Nombre de Dios, Panamá, an Afro-descendant cultural tradition rooted in the historical memory of maroon resistance and the colonial experience, expressed through performance, ritual, social organization, and collective memory. Drawing on fieldwork and oral histories, Ileana focuses on the figure of the Congo “queen,” a central female authority within the tradition, examining how her leadership reflects and reinterprets forms of maroon sovereignty that emerged during the sixteenth-century colonial period.
Ileana’s participation in the congress was supported by the FSU Native American and Indigenous Studies (NAIS) Center and the Mason Fund.
At home, Ileana continues to foster community engagement and support the preservation of local history through her curatorial and educational leadership at the John G. Riley Center & Museum. She is currently developing the museum’s upcoming Civil Rights exhibition and coordinating its two-year collections stabilization and management initiative, made possible by a $100,000 Mellon Foundation grant she initiated and developed. The project also provides hands-on collections experience for FSU students and alumni, including Karen Vargas (BA ’24), now pursuing graduate studies in Museum Education, and Lanai Johnson and Taylor Nelson, current Art History MA students in Museum and Cultural Heritage Studies.
