Mexico

Section Annual Report 2020-2021

A. Mexico Section virtual Zoom meeting was held on May 17, 2021. Ten members attended.

B. We decided that the Mexico Section Graduate Student Travel Awards will be re-instituted for LASA 2022.

C. Suggestions for collaboration, communication, and increasing studies on greater Mexico at LASA and in general were discussed.

D. It was announced that the vote for two new members of the standing committee would be held via email in order to have greater numbers of participation. This vote was held via Google Form from June 8-10, 2021. We elected two new members of the standing committee

• Tamara L. Mitchell. Assistant Professor of Hispanic Studies, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada.
• Jorge Quintana Navarrete. Assistant Professor, Department of Spanish and Portuguese, Dartmouth College.

E. In January 2021, due to pandemic-related budget restraints, the section agreed to pause the Graduate Student Travel Award for LASA 2021 and to lower the amount of funds allocated for the section prizes from $500 to $250 for each of the following categories: Best article in the Social Sciences, Best article in the Humanities, and Best Dissertation. The vote took place on Jan 16, 2021 via Google Forms.

F. In July 2020, the executive committee met in a Zoom meeting with all of its members. The organization of Mexico Section activities was decided.

• 2020 Mexico Section membership allowed the section to submit 4 sponsored panels for LASA 2021: 2 panels and 2 roundtables.
• The sponsored panels (2) and roundtables (2) were discussed and delegated to be organized by Alfonso Valenzuela, Samanta Ordóñez, Amanda Petersen and Rachel Sánchez.
• The Awards Committees Chairs were selected (below). The chairs are responsible for the CFP and formation of the committee. Traditionally, the winner of the previous year's award is invited to participate in the selection committee for the following year.

           ○ Book in Humanities: Emily Hind:
           ○ Book in the Social Sciences: Alfonso Valenzuela
           ○ Article in the Humanities: Amanda Petersen
           ○ Article in the Social Sciences: Mark Moreno
           ○ Dissertation: Samanta Ordóñez
           ○ Graduate Student Travel Awards (not awarded in 2021): Juan García Oyervides

G. Executive and Standing Committees for 2021-2022

• Executive: Co-Chairs: Amanda L. Petersen (U of San Diego, until 2022)
• Alfonso Valenzuela (UAEM, until 2022)
• Secretary: Samanta Ordóñez (Wake Forest University, until 2022)

Standing Committee:

• Rachell Sánchez Rivera (U of Cambridge, until 2022)
• Emily Hind (U of Florida, until 2022)
• E. Mark Moreno (Texas A&M U-Commerce, until 2022)
• Tamara L. Mitchell (U of British Columbia, until 2023)
• Jorge Quintana Navarrete (Dartmouth College, until 2023)

F. Awards:

Premio: Best Book in the Humanities

Raúl Diego Rivera Hernández (Villanova University)
Narratives of Vulnerability in Mexico's War on Drugs (Springer)

Two Honorable Mentions:

● Jeannette F. Peterson (University of California, Santa Barbara) and Kevin Terraciano (University of California, Los Angeles), eds. The Florentine Codex: An Encyclopedia of the Nahua World in Sixteenth-Century Mexico (University of Texas Press)

● Sonia Robles (Universidad Panamericana). Mexican Waves: Radio Broadcasting Along Mexico's Northern Border, 1830-1950 (University of Arizona Press)

Premio: Best Article in the Humanities

Gema Kloppe-Santamaría (Loyola University of Chicago)
"The Lynching of the Impious: Violence, Politics, and Religion in Postrevolutionary Mexico (1930s–1950s)," The Americas: A Quarterly Review of Latin American History (Vol. 77, No. 1)

Honorable Mention:

Micah McKay (University of Alabama, Tuscaloosa)
"'Pasto sin fin del basurero': Trash and Disposal in the Poetry of José Emilio Pacheco." Latin American Literary Review (Vol. 47, No. 93).

Premio: Best Book in Social Sciences

Sarah Luna (Tufts University)
Love in the Drug War: Selling Sex and Finding Jesus on the Mexico-US Border (University of Texas Press).

Two Honorable Mentions:

● Rocio Gomez (Virginia Commonwealth University). Silver Veins, Dusty Lungs: Mining, Water, and Public Health in Zacatecas, 1835-1946 (University of Nebraska Press)

● Theodore W. Cohen (Lindenwood University). Finding Afro-Mexico: Race and Nation after the Revolution (Cambridge University Press)

Premio: Best Article in Social Sciences

Elizabeth O'Brien (The Johns Hopkins University)
"The Many Meanings of Aborto: Pregnancy Termination and the Instability of a Medical Category Over Time." Women's History Review (Online)

Honorable Mention:

● Sarah Osten (University of Vermont) "Out of the Shadows: Violence and State Consolidation in Postrevolutionary Mexico." The Latin Americanist (Vol. 64, No. 2)

Premio: Best Dissertation

Martha Balaguera Cuervo (University of Massachusetts, Amherst)
"Citizenship in Transit: Perils and Promises of Crossing Mexico."

Honorable Mention:

Abraham Trejo Terreros (Colegio de México) "Los coyotes. Migración y negocios en la frontera norte de México (1920-1964)."

Section Annual Report 2019-2020

A. We had 7 people present at our virtual Zoom meeting.

B. We elected 2 people as Co-Chairs:

• Amanda Petersen, University of San Diego

• Alfonso Valenzuela-Aguilera, UAEM

C. We elected a Secretary:

• Samanta Ordóñez, Wake Forest University

D. We elected 3 people to be members of our Standing Committee:

• Rachell Sánchez Rivera, University of Cambridge

• Emily Hind, University of Florida

• E. Mark Moreno, Texas A&M University-Commerce

E. We discussed changes to the book award, and it was decided to hold an electronic vote with all current members of LASA Mexico section. The vote took place in July 2020 and it was decided to lower the amount of funds allocated for the section's annual book award from $1000 to $500 in order to increase the amount of funding available for student travel scholarships.

F. Awards:

Premio Libro de Humanidades

Winner: Laura J. Torres-Rodríguez, New York University

Orientaciones transpacíficas: La modernidad mexicana y el espectro de Asia (University of North Carolina Press)

Honorable Mention:

• Paul M. Worley, Western Carolina University
• Rita M. Palacios, Conestoga College Institute of Technology and Advanced Learning

Unwriting Maya Literature: Ts'íib as Recorded Knowledge, University of Arizona Press

•  Emily Hind, University of Florida

Dude Lit: Mexican Men Writing and Performing Competence, 1955-2012, University of Arizona Press

Premio de Libro de Ciencias Sociales

Winner: Natalia de Marinis, Centro de Investigación y Estudios Superiores en Antropología Social (CIESAS)

Desplazadas por la guerra. Estado, género y violencia en la región triqui (CIESAS)

Artículo en humanidades

Winner: Sara Potter, University of Texas at El Paso

"Of Monsters and Malinches: Signifying Violence in Edgar Cléments Operación Bolívar and Tony Sandoval's El cadáver y el sofá." Revista de Estudios Hispánicos 51(1): 143-63.

Honorable Mention:

• Nicole M. Guidotti-Hernández, Emory University

"Partido Liberal Mexicano: Intimate Betrayals: Enrique Flores Magón, Paula Carmona, and the Gendered History of Denunciation." Southern California Quarterly 101(2): 127-62.

• Jorge Quintana Navarrete, Darmouth University

"Biopolítica y vida inorgánica: la plasmogenia de Alfonso Herrera." Revista Hispánica Moderna 72(1): 79-95.

Artículo en ciencias sociales

Winner: Helga Baitenmann, University of London

"Zapata's Justice: Land and Water Conflict Resolution in Revolutionary Mexico (1914-16)." Journal of Latin American Studies 51(4): 801-28.

Honorable Mention:

• Brian Palmer-Rubin, Marquette University

"Evading the Patronage Trap: Organizational Capacity and Demand Making in Mexico." Comparative Political Studies 52(13-14): 2097-2134.

Premio Tesis Doctoral

Winner: Jessica Wax-Edwards, University of London

Power, Violence, and Representation: The Visual Legacy of Felipe Calderón's Presidencty

Honorable Mention:

• Bruno Ríos Martínez de Castro, University of Houston

Escribir sobre la ruina. Operaciones políticas de la poesía mexicana contemporánea, 1985-2015

• Saúl Espino Armendáriz, El Colegio de México

Feminismo católico en México: la historia del CIDHAL y sus redes transnacionales (c 1960-1990)

• Rachel Grace Newman, Columbia University

Transnational Ambitions: Student Migrants and the Making of a National Future int Twentieth-Century Mexico

 

Section Annual Report 2018-2019

A. We had 30 people present at our meeting.

B. We elected 3 people to our standing committee:

• Ramon Centeno, Universidad de Sonora
• Sophie Esch, Rice University
• Juan García Oyervides, University of Colorado at Boulder

C. We had 4 section panels at LASA, and we had several awards. We discussed changes to the awards and the possibility of putting together a constitution of sorts for the group.

D. Awards:

Premio artículo Ciencias Sociales

 Winner: José Angel Hernández, University of Houston

The Decree of 19 August 1848: The First Repatriation Commissions and Postwar Settlements Along the U.S.-Mexico Borderlands

Premio Artículo Humanidades

 Winner: Laura Torres-Rodríguez, New York University

Into the 'Oriental' Zone: Edward Said and Mexican Literature

Honorable Mention:

Mónica Salas Landa, Lafayette College

(In)visible Ruins: The Politics of Monumental Reconstruction in Postrevolutionary Mexico

Premio de Libro de Ciencias Sociales

Winner: Andrew Konove, University of Texas, San Antonio

Black Market Capital: Urban Politics and the Shadow Economy in Mexico City(University of California Press)

Honorable Mention:

• Alyshia Gálvez, City University of New York

Eating NAFTA: Trade, Food Policies, and the Destruction of Mexico (University of California Press)

•  Sarah Ohsten, University of Vermont

The Mexican Revolution's Wake: The Making of a Political System, 1920-1929 (Cambridge University Press)

Premio Libro de Humanidades

Winner: Sophie Esch, Rice University

Modernity at Gunpoint: Firearms, Politics, and Culture in Mexico and Central America(University of Pittsburgh Press)

Honorable Mention:

• David Dalton, University of North Carolina, Charlotte

Mestizo Modernity: Race, Technology, and the Body in Post-Revolutionary Mexico(University of Florida Press)

•  Sarah J. Townsend, Pennsylvania State University

The Unfinished Art of Theater: Avant-Garde Intellectuals in Mexico and Brazil(Northwestern University Press)

Premio Tesis Doctoral

Presented by the Mexico Section

Winner: Vincent Dereck Cervantes, the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

México Necrótico: Queer Readings of the Politics of Death

Honorable Mention

José Roberto Cruz Arzabal, Universidad Iberoamericana/ UNAM

Cuerpos Híbridos: Presencia Y Materialidad En La Escritura Mexicana Reciente

2018-2020:

Co-chairs:

• Roberto Cruz Arzabal
• David Dalton

Secretary:

• Rafael Acosta