Christine Mathias joined the department in 2015 as a lecturer in Modern Latin American History. Her research and teaching promote historical thinking across and about national borders. Her current book project provides the first comprehensive history of efforts by Argentina, Bolivia, and Paraguay to conquer an isolated South American borderland known as the Gran Chaco. The book argues for an alternative approach to borderlands history that traces the emergence of new forms of indigenous leadership, political subjectivity, and citizenship. In addition, she is developing a new project on the history of Peronism in the Argentine interior.

She received a PhD in History from Yale University in 2015. Her research has been supported by the Fulbright Program, the Social Science Research Council, the Mrs. Giles Whiting Foundation, the Philanthropic Educational Organization, Yale University, and King’s College London. 

Research interests and PhD supervision

• Modern Latin America
• U.S.-Mexico Borderlands
• Populism

Christine welcomes PhD applications from research students working on any area of modern Latin American history, including those interested in nation-state formation, populism, political violence, and borderlands history.  

Expertise and public engagement

Christine has experience living and researching in Argentina, Bolivia, Ecuador, Mexico, Paraguay, and the United States. She writes about history and Latin American affairs for publications such as Dissent and Perspectives on History.