New World Nation-Building

Resume

'New World' Nation-Building: Hemispheric Revolution and the Postcolonial Foundations of American Political Thought traces the emergence of what I call Pan-American Discourse, a hemispheric vernacular of anti-colonial revolution that I argue connected the more than thirty popular republican movements which seized control of the Americas during the Age of Revolutions (c.1775-1830). The book relies on archival analysis to connect cases of hemispheric solidarity among Indigenous, Black, and Mestizo-led revolutionary movements in Mexico, Colombia, Peru, and the United States with the goal of showing that marginalized communities used Pan-American rhetoric to legitimize demands for egalitarian reforms such as the abolition of slavery, tributary practices, as well as for the establishment of civic equality and protected land rights. In doing so, my study of hemispheric insurgency movements demonstrates that marginalized communities transformed the principles of republican thought by centering ethnoracial standpoints, religious identities, and precolonial genealogies in their visions for post-colonial emancipation. I illustrate these political innovations by using objects of popular discourse, such as marching songs, pamphlets, poems, and visual artifacts used by these movements.

Research Agenda

My broader research agenda is situated in two areas. First, postcolonial and comparative political theory, my work on hemispheric insurgency movements emphasizes Indigenous studies, racial and ethnic studies, popular movements, and decolonial politics. My research aims to bring a vernacular perspective in the study of marginalized groups by tracing the language, practices, and visions they used to subvert colonial power. Second, my research aims to expand the scope and archive of the History of Political Thought by highlighting the political and conceptual innovations of popular discursive contexts. My study of the Age of Revolutions focuses on the reception of Republican Political Thought in the Americas, as well as its imbrication in histories of empire and colonialism. My work on insurgency movements demonstrates that marginalized communities not only understood the saliency of republican rhetoric during the Age of Revolutions, but also shows how these groups transformed republican thinking to better address their lived experiences as colonial subjects.

Peer Reviewed Publications

“Restoring Anáhuac: Indigenous Genealogies and Hemispheric Republicanism in Post-Colonial Mexico,”American Journal of Political Science (AJPS) 67(3): 718-731 (2023).

"Languages of Transnational Revolution: The 'Republicans of Nacogdoches' and Ideological Code-Switching in the U.S.-Mexico Borderlands," Contemporary Political Theory (CPT) 21(3): 373–96 (2022)..

“The Roots of Right-Wing Populism: Donald Trump in 2016” with Thomas Ferguson, Benjamin I. Page, Jacob Rothschild, and Jie Chen, International Journal of Political Economy (IJPE), 49(2): 102–23 (2020).

Book Chapters, Review Essays, and Special Issues

“Place and Supranational Politics: A Review of Inés Valdez’s Transnational Cosmopolitanism and Paulina Ochoa Espejo’s On Borders,” Theory & Event, 26(2): 393-400 (2023).

“Alternate Imaginaries in Postcolonial, Decolonial, and Comparative Political Theory” special issue edited with Gabriel Salgado and Gauri Wagle forthcoming with Philosophy and Global Affairs.

“Imperial Subjectivities: Indigenous Claims-Making as Intracolonial Agency” with Owen Brown. Forthcoming in Non-Western Agency and World Politics edited by Anahita Arian and John Hobson (prepared for Cambridge University Press).

Working Projects

"Naming Negritudes: Hemispheric Solidarities and Postcolonial Futures in the Colombian Pan-African Congress"

"Transformative Politics in the Age of State Power: Realistic and Utopian Reflexivity in E.H. Carr and Hannah Arendt"

"Negotiating Racial Subjection: Linking Black and Indigenous Resistance through an Order-Centered Framework" with Owen Brown.

"'Which Oppression?' Narratives of National Progress and Popular Organizing in 1970's Colombia." with Laura García Montoya and Diana Isabel Güiza Gomez.

"Rousseau and Tlaxcala: Republican Virtue and Anti-Imperialism Beyond Europe" with David Lay Williams.

"Latinx Political Theory as a Counter-Tradition" with Inés Valdez and Raymond Rocco.

Public-Facing Scholarship

"La historia del 'progreso' que deja atrás a millones en Colombia: Algunas Lecciones de la Movilización Nacional" in La Silla Vacia with Laura García Montoya (July 2021).

"Colombia's 'progress' Leaves Millions Behind" in Foreign Policy, with Laura García Montoya (June 2021).

"In Colombia's mass protests, Indigenous and Black activists find echoes of colonial history", Monkey Cage, The Washington Post (June 2021), with Catalina Rodriguez.

“Anáhuac & Rome: Converging Indigeneity and Religiosity in Mexico’s Republican Moment”, Age of Revolutions (February 2020)

“The Economic and Social Roots of Populist Rebellion: Support for Donald Trump in 2016” Working Paper Series, Institute for New Economic Thinking (October 2018)

Awards and Research Grants

Black, Indigenous, and Racialized Scholars/Scholarship Grant, University of Toronto (2022)

Association for Political Theory and Contemporary Political Theory Submission Prize for "Languages of Transnational Revolution" (2021).

Postdoctoral Fellowship (2021; Declined)

Consortium for Faculty Diversity

Diversity and Inclusion Research Advancement Grant in Indigenous Studies (2020)

American Political Science Association

Gaius Charles Bolin Dissertation Fellowship (2020)

Williams College, Williamstown MA

Presidential Fellowship Nominee (2020; Declined)