Research & Writing
Building University City:
Knowledge, Power, and Publics in UNAM’s University City
My current book project analyzes the planning and construction of a campus for the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM) in the early 1950s. This monumental building project testified to the strategies of Mexico’s one-party rule as well as the politics of dissent that would soon challenge it. As one of the largest public university systems in the Americas, UNAM and its sprawling, 2,500-acre campus became iconic symbols of modern Mexico. In the book, I analyze UNAM’s campus as a monument to competing visions of the country’s future, a venue for debates of national importance, and a training ground for the country’s most powerful decision makers. I have presented this research at Princeton University, Columbia University, Rutgers University, the Latin American Studies Association, the American Historical Association, and the International Meeting of Historians of Mexico.