Jaclyn Sumner, Ph.D.

Courses I have taught include Modern Latin America, Colonial Latin America, Drugs in the Americas, Race, Gender and Power in Latin America, History of Mexico, Indigenous Americas, Women in the Americas, US-Latin America Relations, Racial Justice in the U.S., and Rise of World Cultures and Modern World, PC’s general education courses. I have led student trips to Spain, Greece, the Yucatán Peninsula of Mexico. I am also the creator and director of PC’s new minor in Race and Ethnic Studies.

My research explores the themes of race and environmental politics in modern Mexico. My first book Indigenous Autocracy: Power, Race, and Resources in Porfirian Tlaxcala, Mexico (Stanford University Press, 2024) explains how an Indigenous governor brokered between the demands of the national dictatorship and the people of Tlaxcala during the rule of Porfirio Díaz (1876-1910)—the historical apex of anti-Indigenous discrimination in Mexico. My research has been supported by the American Council of Learned Societies, the Fulbright-Hays Program, the Fulbright IIE Program, and various grants and fellowships through PC and the University of Chicago. 

I completed my Ph.D. (2014) and my M.A. (2009) in Latin American history from the University of Chicago. My B.A. is from Northwestern University (2005) where I studied history and Spanish. It was at Northwestern where I learned the tremendous value of forging close relationships with faculty through a liberal arts education. When I am not writing or teaching, I am running around Greenville with my husband Billy, our kiddo Harrison, and our dogs, Logan and Fitz.

Education

Ph.D., Latin American History, University of Chicago
M.A., Latin American History, University of Chicago
B.A., History and Spanish, Northwestern University

Research or Areas of Specialty

Mexico and Latin America; Race and Gender in the Americas