ROUNDTABLE DISCUSSION
The Future of Mexican Past:
A Roundtable Discussion on Mexico’s Porfirian Histories and Historiographies
May 17, 2012 5:30 – 7:30pm
Liu Institute for Global Issues, Multipurpose Room
6476 NW Marine Drive, UBC
The Liu Research Group on Gender and Sexuality in Latin America and the Liu Institute for Global Issues are pleased to invite you to a roundtable discussion featuring:
Dr. Paul Garner
Professor of History and Cowdray Professor of Spanish at the University of Leeds. At present, he is also a visiting research fellow at Mexico City’s Research Institute “Dr. José Ma. Luis Mora”. Dr. Garner is author of Porfirio Diaz: A Profile in Power, one of the most recent works on the historiography the Porfirian period, as well of five books and dozens of articles on the topic.
Dr. Evelyn Hu-DeHart
Professor of History, and Director of the Center for the Study of Race and Ethnicity in America at Brown University. Dr. Hu-DeHart’s research focuses on Chinese diasporas and transpacific migrations to and from Mexico during the Porfirian era and the Mexican Revolution. She has written and edited over a dozen books related to these subject.
Dr. William French
Professor of History at the University of British Columbia. Dr. French specializes on the history of gender and sexuality in the Porfirian years, and has published several books and articles on the subject.
History is always a process in the making. This is especially true for the Porfiriato, the controversial period of Mexican history spanning between 1876 and 1911 named after President Porfirio Díaz. During the Mexican Revolution and the decades of single party ruling that followed the deposition of Porfirio Díaz, historians tended to portray his long presidency as a disruption to Mexico’s seemingly inevitable republican path – a path that, some argued, was being restored with a presidency headed by the Institutional Revolutionary Party beginning in 1929. But as the PRI lost the 2000-federal elections and the country started its so-called transition to democracy, the Porfirian period has become the subject of new and more multifaceted historical, political and social interpretations.
This roundtable discussion will explore some of the complex processes that go into the present and future making and remaking of Mexico’s histories and historiographies. Chaired by Dr. Paul Garner.