Rosemary Thorp, 1940-2025
Rosemary Thorp, Emeritus Fellow of St Antony’s College and the Latin American Centre, where she was beloved teacher to generations of Latin Americanists, died on 8 November 2025. She was 85 years old.
Rosemary studied Economics at Oxford, graduating in 1962. After three years at Berkeley, she was named lecturer in economics of Latin America at the University of Oxford in 1971. During her thirty-seven years at our university, she was Reader in the Economics of Latin America, director of the Latin American Centre for three periods, and head of the Oxford Department of International Development (ODID). She was also Governing Body Fellow in St Antony’s College. Between 2001 and 2006 Rosemary was Chair of the Board of Trustees at Oxfam GB.
An economic historian, Rosemary published extensively on Latin America with particular attention to Peru. Her first book Peru, 1890-1977: Growth and Policy in an Open Economy, coauthored with Geoffrey Bertram, was published in 1978. A review in the Journal of Economic History praised its rigour and creativity: according to Jonathan Brown, the book’s “empirical research, sectoral analysis, and understanding of the growth process should be the envy of everyone writing on the economic history of Latin America.”
In the 1990s Rosemary led an ambitious research project on Latin American economic history funded by the Inter-American Development Bank. It resulted in the publication of Progress, Poverty and Exclusion: An Economic History of Latin America in the Twentieth Century in 1998. Following a political economy approach, this textbook offered a comprehensive review of the region’s successive economic models. Its nine chapters discussed the changing role of the state and described Latin America’s struggles to sustain long-term development during the 20th century. Progress, Poverty and Exclusion stands out for its clarity and rigour; I particularly admire the way it identifies common patterns while simultaneously accounting for unique country trajectories. The book was accompanied by three rich academic volumes co-edited by Enrique Cardenas, Jose Antonio Ocampo and Rosemary as well as a comprehensive database prepared by Pablo Astorga and Valpy Fitzgerald.
Rosemary’s extensive body of work touched on many other topics, including inflation, stabilisation and debt (in two volumes co-edited with Laurence Whitehead), economic management in Colombia and Peru (with the book Gestion economica y desarrolo en Peru y Colombia published in 1995), social policy in Peru and Venezuela and decentralisation in Chile and Colombia (in a book coauthored with Alan Angell and Pamela Lowden). Between 2004 and 2010, she was a member of the research centre on Ethnicity, Inequality and Human Security (CRISE) led by Frances Stewart and housed at ODID. As a member of CRISE and together with Corinne Caumartin, she was in charge of the cases of Bolivia, Guatemala and Peru. Together with Maritza Paredes—one of her many successful doctoral students—Rosemary wrote Ethnicity and the Persistence of Inequality: The Case of Peru published in 2010. Her last co-authored book, which demonstrated her interest in complex political economy challenges, was The Developmental Challenges of Mining and Oil: Lessons from Africa and Latin America published in 2012.
Rosemary was an institution builder, full of energy and passion. She played a central role in the consolidation of development and area studies at Oxford and contributed to the growth of the Latin American Centre. She was also an inspiring educator, who taught political economy and economic history to hundreds of Latin Americans and Latin Americanists. At a conference in her honour in 2015 in St Antony’s, many of them came together to celebrate her work. They praised Rosemary’s multidisciplinary approach to Latin America and her commitment to social justice and thanked her for her critical but always constructive and supportive mentorship and supervision.
Rosemary was a role model for many of us. Intellectually, she understood the role of history in shaping current events and recognised the influence of income distribution in Latin America’s long-term trajectory. More importantly, she was an impressive woman: kind, reflexive and intelligent. Rosemary was always supportive, empathetic and a great listener.
Rosemary received many recognitions. She was awarded an Honorary Doctorate by the Catholic University of Peru in 2008, a CBE in 2009 and an Honorary Professorship at the Universidad del Pacifico (Lima) in 2010.
Diego Sánchez-Ancochea
