Universidad y experiencias democráticas: las primeras disputas electorales en la Universidad del Magdalena e Istmo, 1827-1840

The study of electoral disputes and the transformation of power structures has been notably lacking in the historiography of republican universities during the first half of the 19th century. This article delves into the experiences of faculty members elected through the vote, which played a significant role in reshaping leadership and expanding intellectual culture at Universidad del Magdalena e Istmo between 1827 and 1840. During this period, somewhat uniquely, enlightened republicans established universities at the departmental (provincial) level in what is now the Republic of Colombia. However, there has been limited examination of the trajectories and selection processes of the educated elite from the standpoint of intellectual history. This article argues that the use of the electoral mechanism, in addition to determining representativeness and the rise of representative government in universities, was a pivotal factor in the affirmation of an education and a secular power. This, on one hand, eroded the clerical influence in higher education and, on the other, displaced ecclesiastics from positions of authority. The advent of the university within the framework of representative democracy also led to the emergence of other types of intellectuals, linked to humanistic knowledge, medicine, and even military education in the navy. Methodologically, the goal is to explore the political journeys of these intellectuals who managed to enter the university in the context of electoral disputes that reshaped academic leadership roles.