I am a historian of Latin America and an associate professor at the University of Vermont, specializing in twentieth century Mexico. I am the director of graduate studies in the UVM history department, as well as the director of the Latin American and Caribbean Studies program. I hold a PhD in history (2010) and a MA in Latin American and Caribbean Studies (2004), both from the University of Chicago. My BA is from Brown University.

My first book, The Mexican Revolution's Wake: The Making of a Political System, 1920-1929 (Cambridge University Press, spring, 2018) is a social and political history of regional Socialist parties that set critical precedents for the creation of Mexico's single party-dominated system in the years following the Mexican Revolution. In 2019, it received an honorable mention for best social science book on Mexico from the Mexico section of the Latin American Studies Association (LASA). A Spanish language edition, Secuelas de la revolución: El nacimiento de un sistema político, 1920-1929, was published by the Centro de Investigaciones Multidisciplinarias Sobre Chiapas y la Frontera Sur— Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México (CIMSUR-UNAM) press in 2024. It is available both in print and open access online: https://www.cimsur.unam.mx/index.php/publicacion/obra/186

My current and planned future research examines long-term legacies of political violence in modern Mexico, and the changing meanings of "revolution" in Mexican politics and society during the twentieth century. In Latin America more generally, I am particularly interested in revolutionary politics, the rise and fall of authoritarian regimes, political violence, grassroots movements for democratization, human rights and social and economic justice, and the relationships between states and opposition movements. I am currently working on a book, tentatively titled Exit to the Future: Mexican Solidarity with Central American Revolutions, 1975-1985, which explores all of these themes. Parts of that project include research on the radical gay and lesbian left in Mexico, and Guatemalan refugees in southern Mexico in the 1980s.

My most recent journal article, “‘I Embody a Daily Revolution’: Mexico's Gay and Lesbian Left and Central American Revolutionary Solidarity, 1978–1985,” is part of this larger research project, and was published by the Hispanic American Historical Review in August 2026. Based both archival sources and oral history interviews, it explores the important and never-before-examined intersections between the activism of members of Mexico City's gay and lesbian Left from the late 1970s to the mid-1980s and their participation in the vibrant movement of solidarity with Central American revolutions in Mexico in those same years. I was interviewed by WCAX (Burlington, VT) about this research for Pride Month in June of 2026 (view here).

As the sole historian of Latin America at UVM, I teach on a wide variety of Latin American topics and countries, from the ancient world to the present. In addition to introductory courses on Latin American history, I teach courses on topics including revolutions, authoritarianism, indigenous history, history and memory, drugs and drug trafficking, and modern Mexican history. Most of my teaching is interdisciplinary, and all my courses are designed to help students to use the past to better understand the present.

In recent years I have served as a Spanish-English interpreter for detained asylum seekers as well as a Mexico country conditions expert for asylum cases. I take on new cases as my schedule permits; please email me with asylum-related inquiries. As of Fall 2026, I am currently only working on Vermont-based asylum cases.