With Gabriela Pulido Llano (INAH), Mario Rufer (UAM-Xochimilco), and Elisa Speckman (UNAM)

Thursday, December 9, 2021, 5:00pm – EST
This event was ONLINE and in SPANISH. With captions.

Moderated by Bárbara Pérez Curiel (NYU). Organized by Fernando Bañuelos (NYU).

The “new history”, according to Mexican historian Pilar Gonzalbo, rejects the model of historical narrative centered on military and political landmarks, faces the challenge of considering common individuals as subjects instead of fixating on the “Great Events”, and refers to new problems and new objects of study, with approaches from disciplines such as anthropology and sociology. This capacious notion of a new history informs the work of several social, cultural, and legal historians currently working in Mexico. The aim of this panel is to provide a space to get to know the work of some of these scholars, and to initiate a dialogue among them about their methodologies and those commonly used in cultural studies, by way of problematizing the concept of the archive.

A Passion for Sources: Traces and Routes of Archival Work in Mexico
Dr. Gabriela Pulido Llano (DEH - INAH)
Dr. Pulido Llano holds a Ph.D. in History and Ethnohistory from the Escuela Nacional de Antropología e Historia. Since 2002, she is a Researcher at the Direction of Historial Studies of the Instituto Nacional de Antropología e Historia (INAH). She presides the Asociación Mexicana de Estudios del Caribe since 1997. At present, she is General Director of the Coordinación de Memoria Histórica y Cultural de México. Some of her recent books are Mulatas y negros cubanos en la escena mexicana, 1920-1950 (INAH, 2010) and El mapa rojo del pecado: miedo y vida nocturna en la ciudad de México 1940-1950 (INAH, 2018).

The Archive and Archiving: From Sovereignty over the Narrative to the Ghosts which Haunt It
Dr. Mario Rufer (UAM - Xochimilco)
Dr. Rufer holds a Ph.D. in Studies of Asia and Africa from El Colegio de México, with a Specialty in History and Anthropology. Currently, he is Professor-Researcher at the Department of Education and Communication at the Division of Social Sciences and Humanities of the Universidad Autónoma Metropolitana - Unidad Xochimilco, and he coordinates at that same institution the Ph.D. Program in the Humanities. He’s a member of Mexico’s Sistema Nacional de Investigadores, Level II. He has published several articles, book chapters, and books on Cultural and Postcolonial Studies in Latin America, history and memory in museums and monuments, and on the uses of the past in South Africa, Argentina, and Mexico. Among his recent publications are La nación en escenas: memoria pública y usos del pasado en contextos poscoloniales (El Colegio de México, 2010), and the volume (In)Disciplinar la investigación. Archivo, trabajo de campo y escritura, which he co-edited with Frida Gorbach (Siglo XXI Editores / UAM, 2016).

Judicial Archives and the History of Justice in Mexico City (19th and 20th Centuries)
Dr. Elisa Speckman Guerra (IIH - UNAM)
Dr. Speckman Guerra holds a Ph.D. in History from the Center of Historical Studies at El Colegio de México and a Ph.D. in Law from the Facultad de Derecho at the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México. She is Director of the Institute of Historical Investigations of UNAM and member of the Academies of History, Penal Sciences, and Sciences. She is also a member of Mexico’s Sistema Nacional de Investigadores, Level III. She has edited more than ten books on the history of law and justice in Mexico. Furthermore, she is author of “El derecho a vivir como una mujer amante y amada”. Nydia Camargo, su crimen y su juicio (El Colegio de México, 2019), En tela de juicio. Justicia penal, homicidios célebres y opinión pública (México, siglo XX) (IIH - UNAM / Tirant Lo Blanch, 2020), among other books.

Fernando Bañuelos is a Ph.D. student at the Department of Spanish and Portuguese Languages and Literatures of New York University.

Bárbara Pérez Curiel is a Ph.D. student at the Department of Spanish and Portuguese of New York University. She holds a Master’s degree in Modern Languages (Spanish) from the University of Oxford and a Bachelor’s degree in Modern Languages (German) from the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM). She has worked as an editor, journalist, and translator for an array of media outlets and publishing houses.

Related Event: LA VIDA COTIDIANA CONTRA LA VIOLENCIA

Organized by NYU Portuguese and Spanish Students Association (PASSO) and NYU King Juan Carlos I of Spain Center (KJCC).