Alexander Dawson

Current Research Interests:

I am a historian of modern Latin America. My principle focus is Mexico. Most of my publications focus on the intersections of politics, human rights, inequality, and race, particularly where it concerns the complex terrain of indigenous rights in the Americas. Lately, my research has also spilled across the northern border, as I have sought to understand the ways in which ideas about indigeneity work in different North American contexts. My current book project, forthcoming with the University of California Press, takes up this effort by exploring the history of peyote, science, and the law on both sides of the US-Mexican border.