Mark Overmyer-Velazquez
Associate Professor
Office: Wood Hall, Room 234
Phone: (860) 486-5571
Fax: (860) 486-0641
Email: mark.velazquez@uconn.edu
Areas of Specialty
Modern Mexico; U.S. Latinos/as; Las Américas
The graduate and undergraduate courses I teach examine the historical origins of the broad, transnational and interdisciplinary fields of Latin(o) American history, with special emphasis on the history of Greater Mexico (including the Mexico/US border and the Mexican diaspora). Topics analyzed in my courses include economic and political imperialism, human rights, migration, cultural nationalism, political membership, gender relations, race and racism, identity formation, religion, labor, immigration law, and the arts.
Current Research Interests
Transnational Migration and Empire; Mexico-US Migration |
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Biography
After completing my doctoral studies in Latin American history at Yale University (Ph.D. 2002), I taught in the History and Chicano/a Studies Departments at Pomona College. As the Andrew Mellon Postdoctoral Fellow at Wesleyan University's Center for the Humanities (2003-2004) I finished my book manuscript, Visions of the Emerald City: Modernity, Tradition and the Formation of Porfirian Oaxaca, Mexico (Duke University Press, 2006). The book and related articles analyze how elites (city officials and Church leaders) and commoners (city artisans and female sex workers) mobilized visual cultures to construct and experience the mutually defining processes of modernity and tradition during late 19th and early 20th century Mexico. Supported by an SSRC International Migration Studies Grant, I have initiated work on two new book projects. The first, provisionally entitled, “’Bleeding Mexico White’: Race, Nation, and the History of Mexico – U.S. Migration,” examines critical themes in the transnational history of migration between Mexico and the United States from the late nineteenth century to the present day. The study includes a history of one of the farthest reaches of the Mexican diaspora in the state of Connecticut. The second project is an edited volume for Oxford University Press that brings together leading scholars of Mexican migration. I am the editor of a two volume series entitled, Latino America: State by State, to be published by Greenwood Press in 2008. Uniquely conceptualized, Latino America addresses the historical significance of the growing Latin(o) American population throughout all of the United States. While paying careful attention to the transnational dimensions of Latin American migration to the U.S, individual chapters will critically examine the wide range of different Latino/a identities, ethnicities, and social and political positions at the state level. I am a Faculty Associate in the Institute of Puerto Rican and Latino Studies and a UConn Honors Faculty Fellow.
Selected Publications
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"Bleeding Mexico White": Race, Nation and the History of Mexico - US Migration. Work in progress. Under contract with Duke University Press (American Encounters/Global Interactions Series).
Editor, Beyond the Border: The History of Mexico-US Migration. Work in progress. Under contract with Oxford University Press.
Visions of the Emerald City: Modernity, Tradition and the Formation of Porfirian Oaxaca, Mexico, Duke University Press, 2006.
- 2007 Best Book Prize, New England Council on Latin American Studies.
- Finalist, 2007 Urban History Association Kenneth Jackson Award for Best Book in North American Urban History.
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Visiones de la ciudad esmeralda: Modernidad, tradición y la formación de Oaxaca porfiriana.Oaxaca, Mexico: Universidad Autónoma “Benito Juárez” de Oaxaca, forthcoming. [Translation of Visions of the Emerald City, revised edition with preface by Dr. Francie Chassen-Lopez]
Editor, Latino America: State by State. (2 vols.) Westport: Greenwood Press, 2008.
"Transforming Race and Nation: New Trends in Latin(o) American Migration." Latin American Perspectives. (Sage Publications) Issue 6, Vol. 35, November 2008.
"Traspasando las fronteras: Pasado y futuro de los estudios de migracion Mexico-Estados Unidos" ("Transgressing Borders: The Past and Future of Mexico - U.S. Migration Studies") in Boris Berenzon ed., Historia de la Historiografia Mexico, Estados Unidos y Canada. Mexico City: Universidad Nacional Autonoma de Mexico and Fondo de Cultura Economica, 2007.
"Portraits of a Lady: Visions of Modernity in Porfirian Oaxaca City." Mexican Studies/Estudios Mexicanos. Vol. 23 No. 1 2007.
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"A New Political Religious Order: Church, State, and Workers in Oaxaca City, 1887-1911." in Martin A. Nesvig, ed. Religious Culture in Modern Mexico. New York: Rowman & Littlefield, 2007.
"Tracking the Fugitive City: Recent Works on Modern Latin American Urban History." Latin American Perspectives 29, 4 (July 2002): 87-97.
"The Renaissance of Oaxaca City's Historical Archives." Co-authored with Yanna Yannakakis, Latin American Research Review 37, 1 (2002): 186-198.
"Espacios publicos y mujeres publicas: La regulacion de la prostitucion en la Ciudad de Oaxaca, 1885-1991." ("Public Spaces and Public Women: The Regulation of Prostitution in Oaxaca City, 1885-1911") Acervos-Boletin de los Archivos y Bibliotecas de Oaxaca, Oaxaca, Mexico 20 (2001): 20-26.
Links of Interest
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