Mexico

LASA MX SECTION REPORT
Jun 27, 2025

Submitted by Elena Deanda, PhD, co-chair
Christina Karageorgou-Bastea, PhD

The LASA Mexico Section met during LASA San Francisco 2025 on May 24 at 4:00 PM in the Marriott. The meeting was attended by six members as well as four members online. The meeting was led by co-chair Elena Deanda-Camacho (Washington College), as well as secretary and treasurer, Ana Almeyda Cohen (Colby College). Members started the meeting by reflecting on the 2025 migratory crisis, the tariffs against Mexican products, and the arrival of a new US ambassador to MX, Ronald Johnson.

Reports
I gave a report on LASA. As of May 2025, there are 9,300 members (45 % from LatAm, 44 % from the US, 31 % students, 31 % from PolSci, 30 % lit.). In LASA 2025, there were +1000 sessions, 12 presidential sessions, 15 pre-conferences, communitarian initiatives, artistic initiatives, and a book fair. Also, I reported on the discussion of possible venues for conferences beyond Paris: one in collaboration with BRASA, also Chile; and a follow-up on the continental- based initiatives, such as LASA Africa and LASA Oceania. Information was given on the forthcoming celebration of LASA’s 60 years and fundraising. I also informed them on the administrative change that gives section members both voice and vote in EC. Finally, I gave key numbers on the travel grants (+900 petitions, 250 given); and on LASA’s budget (5M of endowment, 1M from the Pittsburgh Foundation).

I also reported on the LASA MX Section sponsored panels. We received 6 proposals, and although we do not include two panels, we encouraged all membership to attend them (Corpus patrio: Límites y posibilidades del archivo Mexicano by Alejandra Vela; and Devolver el cuerpo desaparecido: Representaciones de la ausencia en la producción cultural latinoamericana by Regina Pieck). The sponsored panels were: Decentering Mexico: Transdisciplinary Methods and Representations of Borders, Bodies, and Commodities’ Flows by Amy Carroll; Exilio, comunismo y catolicismo en México de la Revolución a la Guerra Fría by Jorge Iván Puma Crespo; No Longer on the Margins: New Studies of Ethnoraciality in Mexico by Hugo Cerón Anaya; and México, el país de las fosas: La investigación activista sobre desaparición by
Rosalva Aída Hdez. Castillo.

Elections
We conducted both online and floor elections. The voted co-chairs from the floor were: Hugo Cerón Anaya (Lehigh U) and Kathleen Bruhn (UCSB), whose service runs from 2025-2028. The Secretary and Treasurer continues to be Ana Almeyda Cohen (Colby College). The Council is formed by the newly elected Amy Wright (St Louis U), Alejandra Vela Martínez (Harvard U), Francisco Tijerina (Washington University in St Louis); Ma. José Rdguez. Pliego (Northwestern U); and Sharon Lean (Wayne State U). Their service will run from 2025-2028.

Yearly activities

The section took the following actions during the 2024-2025 cycle. I built a database of around +80 Mexicanists who wanted to be part of it, and participate either as mentors, members of a cohort, or public scholars. We also made a public Youtube channel to start streaming and uploading online talks, one of which was proposed by Heidi Smith (Iberoamericana U) on the subject of immigration. I reached out to Mexicanist centers and discussed ways to collaborative: the Centre for Mexican Studies the U College Cork; the Centre for Mexican American Studies at the U of Texas at Arlington; the Mexican Studies Institute at CUNY; the Center for Mexican American and Latino/a Studies at the U of Houston; the Center for Mexican American Studies at the U of Texas at Austin; and the Center for Mexican American Studies at the U of Texas Rio Grande Valley. We also discussed the possibility of making an additional fund for Mexicanists
and let members know that they can add more money to the Section to fund more travel grants.

Moving forward, the new directive will hopefully follow on these items. I will do my best to wrap up the database and provide some continuity on the liaison with Mexicanist centers.

Prizes
In 2024, Karageorgou organized the LASA Section Awards by forming juries per category and receiving and organizing submissions. The 2025 winners were: Marissa Nichols, Best Doctoral Dissertation with “Nurses, Indigenous Authorities, and Rural Health in Oaxaca, Mexico,
1934-1970;” and the Honorific Mention in the same category went to Verónica Valencia González, “Global Influences, Local Realitiess: Unraveling Intimate Partner Violence in Rural Michoacan.” 

The Prize to the Best Article in the Humanities went to Alejandro Quintero Machler, for “Autopsy, Patrimony, and a Christianized Reforma: Manuel Ramírez Aparicio’s Mexican Conventual History (1861-1862).” And the Honorific Mention in the same category went to Ana
Romero Valderrama for “Sangre revuelta, virtud y civilización: Usos politicos de las ascendencias asociadas a Vicente Guerrero.”

The Prize to Best Article in the Social Sciences was for Julie Weise and Christopher Rass for “Migrating Concepts: The Transatlantic Origins of the Bracero Program, 1919-1942.”

The Prize for Best Book in the Humanities went to Carolyn Fornoff, Subjunctive Aesthetics: Mexican Cultural Production in the Era of Climate Change, and the Honorific Mentions went to: Kevin Anzzolin for Guardians of Discourse: Journalism and Literature in Porfirian Mexico; Jorge Quintana for Biocosmism. Vitality and the Utopian Imagination in Postrecolucionary Mexico; and Amy Wright for Serial Mexico: Storytelling
across Media, from Nationhood to Now.

The Prize for the Best Book in Social Science was for Ieva Jusionyte for Exit Wounds: How America’s Guns Fuel Violence Across the Border; and the Honorific Mention went to Elizabeth O’Brien for Surgery and Salvation: The Roots of Reproductive Injustice in Mexico, 1770-1940.

Grants 
This year, the Section chose to devote all their funds to students or faculty in need of travel assistance, given the increasing constraints in research funds from our institutions. We had three travel grantees: Josep Romans Fontacaba (UABC), Claudia Ximena Jasso Monge (UABC), and José Mario Suárez Martínez (Colegio de la Frontera Norte).

_______________________________

2023-2024 LASA Mexico Section Report

The LASA Mexico Section met during LASA Bogotá 2024 on June 13 at 5:40 PM in the Pontificia Universidad Javeriana. They were thirty members attending as well as five online. The meeting was led by co-chairs Elena Deanda-Camacho (Washington College) and Christina Karageourgou-Bastea (Vanderbilt U), as well as secretary and treasurer, Ana Almeyda Cohen (Colby College). Members started the meeting by reflecting on the 2024 Mexican election of Claudia Sheinbaum, AMLO’s government, and their relationship to Mexican studies.

The meeting started by celebrating the LASA Mexico Section awardees; then, we introduced our newly elected officers; then, we provided a report on the online feedback given by members; and finally, we presented three initiatives that the Section will commit to during the next academic year and stemmed from that feedback: 1) an online zoom session to be hosted in the Youtube LASA channel on the topic of immigration vis-à-vis the US 2024 elections; 2) a mentorship network both vertical (from seasoned mentors to younger scholars) and horizontal (creating cohorts); and 3), an online hub in the LASA website in which members would be able to gather links on Mexican studies. The Section has created task forces groups to follow up on these initiatives.

In May 2024, the Section voted online to designate two Section officers: Kathleen Bruhn (UCSB) and Hugo Cerón Anaya (Lehigh U) will serve from AY 2024-2027. They are joining the Council of the Section currently formed by Alejandra Márquez (Michigan State U) and Heidi Jane Smith (U Iberoamericana), whose service runs from 2023-2025.

In September 2023, Deanda organized the LASA Section Awards by forming juries per category, receiving and organizing submissions, and providing juries with grading rubrics to assess the relevance of the submitted work to the field of Mexican studies, the work’s originality, analytical depth, and methodological rigor, as well as its significant contribution to the field.

The 2024 winners were: for the Best Book in the Humanities, Danielle Terrazas Williams (U of Leeds); Honorific Mention to Sergio Gutiérrez Negrón (Oberlin College); for the Best Book in Social Sciences, Janice Gallagher (Rutgers U); for the Best Essay in the Humanities, Carolyn Fornoff (Cornell U); Honorific Mention to Miguel Valerio (Washington U in St. Louis); for Best Essay in Social Sciences, Rachel Grace Newman (Colgate U); and for Best Dissertation, Jorge Puma Crespo (U of Notre Dame), Honorific Mention to Joel Salvador Herrera (UCLA). The jury members for the Best Book in the Humanities were Ana Sabau (U of Michigan Ann Arbor), José Roberto Cruz Arzabal (U Veracruzana), Oswaldo Zavala (CUNY, Staten Island), and Philippe Meers (University of Antwerp). For Best Book in Social Sciences, Nora Jaffary (Concordia U), Vicente Moctezuma Mendoza (UAM), Jurgen Buchenau (UNC Charlotte); and Douglass Sullivan González (U of Mississippi). For Best Article in the Humanities, Samanta Ordoñez Robles (Wake Forest U); Greg Schelonka (Louisiana Tech U), and Pavel Andrade (Texas Tech U). For Best Article in the Social Sciences, Heidi Smith (U Iberoamericana), Ángel Escamilla García (Yale U), and Xóchitl Bada (U of Illinois, Chicago). For Best Dissertation, Amy Carroll (UCSD), Stuart Day (Kansas U), and Jannette Amaral Rodríguez (U of Richmond).

2022-2023 LASA Mexico Section Report

I began this term as a co-chair of the section with a secretary-treasurer, and then shortly thereafter both of the people holding those positions declared that they were no longer able to perform these roles. As such, the activities of the Mexico section have been reduced significantly this year.

Panels

I organized three panels on behalf of the Mexico section during the 2023 LASA meeting in Vancouver together with the standing committee (María Teresa Vázquez, Tamara L. Mitchell, Jorge Quintana-Navarrete and Niamh Thornton).

Prize Committees and Prizes

I also organized several prize committees. Members of the standing committee acted as chairs of each committee and winners of the prize in previous years, or people who had been nominated for an honorable mention, were invited to participate. I also issued a general invitation via email and facebook for greater transparency and in order to ensure that a range of scholars from the US, Mexico, and Europe, were included in the committees.

I organized the committees in October and then issued the calls in November and the deadlines were in December and January. The committees met in 2023 and used criteria that was appropriate to their disciplinary expertise to assess the best books, articles, and dissertations. All information regarding calls for award nominations is held in a google drive account that will be shared with the incoming executive.

Best book in humanities: Tamara L. Mitchell (chair), Susan Antebi, Aurea Toxqui, Rafael Lemus and David Dalton (committee members)

Best book in social sciences: Teresa Vázquez (chair), Corinna Zeltsman, Michael Snodgrass, Kathleen Bruin and Melixa Abad Izquierdo (members)

Best article in humanities: Niamh Thornton (chair), Sophie Esch, Carolyn Fornoff and Ivonne Del Valle (members)

Best article in social sciences: Alan Malfavón (chair), Gema Kloppe-Santamaría, Jaime Ortega, and Humberto Morales (members)

Best dissertation: Jorge Quintana-Navarrete (chair), Viridiana Hernández Fernández, Iván Ramírez de Garay and Mary K. Long (members)

Graduate student scholarships: Rebecca Janzen (chair), Christina Baker (member)

The winners of these prizes were as follows:

Best book in humanities:

Author: Ana Sabau (University of Michigan)

Title: Riot and Rebellion in Mexico: The Making of a Race War Paradigm

Honorable mentions:

Author: Diana Montaño (Washington University in St Louis)

Title: Electrifying Mexico: Technology and the Transformation of a Modern City

Author: Oswaldo Zavala (CUNY-Graduate Center; Staten Island)

Title: La guerra en las palabras. Una historia intelectual del narco en México.

Best book in social sciences:

Author: Vicente Moctezuma (UNAM, Instituto de Investigaciones sociales)

Title: El desvanecimiento de lo popular

Honorable mention:

Author: David Tavarez (Vassar College)

Title: Rethinking Zapotec Time: Cosmology, Ritual, and Resistance in Colonial Mexico.

Best article in humanities:

Author: Kristie Flannery (Australian Catholic University)

Title: “Can the Devil Cross the Deep Blue Sea? Imagining the Spanish Pacific and Vast Early America from Below.” The William and Mary Quarterly 79, no. 1 (2022): 31-60. doi:10.1353/wmq.2022.0004.

Honorable Mentions:

Author: Pavel Andrade (University of Cincinnati)

Title: “Capitalist Thresholds: La muerte de Artemio Cruz and the Mapmaking of Modern Mexico.” Symposium, vol. 76, no. 3, 2022, pp. 127–40. https://doi.org/10.1080/00397709.2022.2127197.

Author: Alfonso Fierro (Kenyon College)

Title: “Modeling the Urban Commune: Collective Housing, Utopian Architecture, and Social Reproduction in the Mexican 1930s”, Mexican Studies/EstudiosMexicanos Vol. 38, Issue 2, Summer 2022, pages 272–299.

Best article in social sciences:

Author: Gabriela Soto Laveaga (Harvard University)

Title: “Beyond Borlaug's Shadow: Octavio Paz, Indian Farmers, and the Challenge of Narrating the Green Revolution”

Honorable mention:

Author: Angel A. Escamilla Garcia (Yale University)

Title: “The Borderlandization of Mexico: Mexico’s New Policies of Deportation and Detention of Minor Migrants and their Effects on Migrant Movement.”

Best dissertation:

Author: Angel Escamilla García (Yale University)

Title: "Knowledge, Place, and Experience in the Migrant Journey: How Central American Migrant Youth Negotiate Violence in Mexico"

Honorable mentions:

Author: Diana Méndez Rojas

Title:"Modernizar la agricultura, movilizar las ideas: trayectorias de los becarios de la fundación Rockefeller"

Author: Alejandra Vela Martínez

Title: "Cursis feministas: revistas para mujeres, memoria y canon literario en México"

Graduate student scholarship:

Iván Rivero Hernández (UNAM)

Elections

I organized elections for new officers in the section in the upcoming year. The following people allowed their names to stand in an election that was held online between 1 May and 15 May 2023. Several positions were acclaimed, so there was only an election for standing committee membership.

The following people ran for standing committee positions: Hugo Ceron-Anaya, Joseph Lenti, Alejandra Márquez and Heidi Jane Smith

The following people won: Alejandra Márquez and Heidi Jane Smith

The executive for the 2023-2024 year will be as follows:

Co-chairs:

• Ana Berenice de la Peña Aguilar (Universidad Autónoma de Coahuila)
• Christina Karageorgou-Basta (Vanderbilt U) (both acclaimed)

Secretary-Tresaurer:

Ana Almeyda-Cohen (Colby College) (acclaimed)

Standing committee:

Teresa Vázquez Castillo (Universidad Autónoma Ciudad Juárez) and Niamh Thornton (University of Liverpool) (terms ending in 2024) and Alejandra Márquez and Heidi Jane Smith (2023-2025).

I issued some letters on institutional letterhead confirming various roles and assignments. Ghiselle Blanco from LASA also generously issued further certificates and proof of accomplishments for other section members and answered my many questions over the course of the year.

Business Meeting

There was no business meeting as I was leading a study abroad in Spain and my commitment to the students there in addition to the time difference made my attendance impossible. I emailed the members of the section and informed them that we would have an email in lieu of a meeting.

Upcoming Academic Year

The proposed activities for the new academic year involve planning for four panels and continuing to award prizes.

Other information

Should any members of the LASA executive be unable to perform their roles Jurgen Buchenau (UNC Charlotte) has expressed interest in becoming more involved with the section. He has a wealth of experience in many administrative roles and I would encourage members of the section to reach out to him.

Respectfully submitted, Rebecca Janzen

Section Annual Report 2021-2022

A. We had 9 people present at our virtual Zoom meeting.

B. We elected 2 people as Co-Chairs (2022-23, renewable for one additional year): ·

• Rebecca Janzen, University of South Carolina
•  Alan Malfavon, Washington State University

C. We elected a Secretary (2022-23, renewable for one additional year): ·

• Julio Enriquez-Ornelas, Millikin University

D. We elected 2 persons to be members of our Standing Committee (2022-24)

•  Teresa Vázquez Castillo, Universidad Autónoma de Ciudad Juárez
•  Niamh Thornton, University of Liverpool

E. We discussed the fact that this year we did not receive any Mexico-based candidates for the Co-chair position. The two candidates elected to this position were the only ones who responded to the call.

F. Awards:

Premio: Best Book in the Humanities:

Author: Susan Antebi (University of Toronto)

Title: Embodied Archive: Disability in Post-Revolutionary Mexican Cultural Production (University of Michigan Press)

Two Honorable Mentions:

Author: K. Mitchell Snow (Independent Scholar)

Title: A Revolution in Movement: Dancers, Painters, and the Image of Modern Mexico (University Press of Florida)

Author: Germán Vergara (Georgia Tech)

Title: Fueling Mexico: Energy and Environment, 1850-1950 (Cambridge University Press)

Premio: Best Article in the Humanities:

Author: Carolyn H. Fornoff (University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign)

Title: "Planetary Poetics of Extinction in Contemporary Mexican Poetry" in Mexican Literature as World Literature (2021)

Honorable Mention:

Author: Sophie Esch (Rice University)

Title: "Hippopotamus Dead or Alive: Animals and Trauma in Narratives of the Drug War," in Revista Hispánica Moderna (Vol. 74, No. 2)

Premio: Best Book in Social Sciences:

Author: Corinna Zeltsman (Georgia Southern University)

Title: Ink Under the Fingernails: Printing and Politics in Nineteenth-Century Mexico (University of California Press)

Two Honorable Mentions:

Author: Gema Kloppe-Santamaría (Loyola University Chicago)

Title: In the Vortex of Violence: Lynching, Extralegal Justice, and the State in Post-Revolutionary Mexico (University of California Press)

Author: Vanessa Freije (University of Washington)

Title: Citizens of Scandal: Journalism, Secrecy, and the Politics of Reckoning in Mexico (Duke University Press)

Premio: Best Article in Social Sciences:

Author: Gema Kloppe-Santamaría (Loyola University Chicago)

Title: "Deadly Rumors: Lynching, Hearsay, and Hierarchies of Credibility in Mexico," in Journal of Social History (Vol. 55, No. 1)

Two Honorable Mentions:

Author: Diana J. Montano (Washington University in St Louis)

Title: "Ladrones de Luz: Policing Electricity in Mexico City, 1901–1918" in Hispanic American Historical Review (Vol. 101, No. 1)

Author: Ramón I. Centeno (Universidad de Sonora)

Title: "López Obrador o la izquierda que no es."in Foro Internacional (Vol. 61, No. 1)

Premio: Best Dissertation:

Author: Iván Ramírez de Garay (El Colegio de México)

Title: "El sismo de 1985 en la Ciudad de México. Una historia política".

Two Honorable Mentions:

Author: Viridiana Hernández Fernández (University of California, Davis)

Title: "Guacamole Ecosystems: Agriculture, Migration, and Deforestation in Twentieth-Century Mexico"

Author: Gaëlle Le Calvez House (Yale University)

Title: "Escrituras sin rostro: El antagonismo como fisura a los discursos hegemónicos en México,1994-2020"

G. We presented a financial report in which $1,750.00 were used for the awards for best books, articles and dissertation, and $1,612.75 will be used for next year’s conference travel grants for graduate students.

H. Executive and Standing Committees for 2022-2023

Executive Committees:

● Co-chair: Rebecca Janzen (University of South Carolina, until 2023)

● Co-chair: Alan Malfavon (Washington State University, until 2023)

● Secretary/Treasurer: Julio Enriquez-Ornelas (Millikin University, until 2023)

Standing Committee:

● Tamara L. Mitchell (U of British Columbia, until 2023)

● Jorge Quintana Navarrete (Dartmouth College, until 2023)

● Niamh Thornton (University of Liverpool, until 2024)

● Teresa Vázquez Castillo (Universidad Autónoma de Ciudad Juárez, until 2024)

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