Benjamin Smith
Office: 319 Morrill Hall
Phone: 517-432-8222 ext. 117
Email: bensmith@msu.edu
Office Hours: W 2-4pm
I received my doctorate from the University of Cambridge in 2006, where I was supervised by Professor David Brading. My doctoral work looked at the history of popular politics in the heavily indigenous state of Oaxaca. My first book, The Politics of State Formation in Oaxaca, 1920-1952 will be published in early 2009 by the University of Nebraska Press. I have also co-authored a book on women's social movements in Oaxaca with Noemi Morales Sanchez, which should also be out in 2009 published by the Casa de la Cutura, Oaxaca.
Over the past two years, I have started to look at issues of popular politics and indigenous religiosity. I am currently working on a book tentatively entitled Ethnicity, Religion and Popular Conservatism in the Mixteca Baja, 1810-2000. I am also preparing one article on the masons in Mexico and another on religious responses to the Mexican Revolution.
Research Keywords
- 19th and 20th Century Mexican History, Latin American Religious History, Comparative Revolutions
Research Areas
- Comparative
Time Periods
- 20th Century/Contemporary
Affiliations
- Center for Latin American and Caribbean Studies
Recent or current courses
- HST 831 - Seminar in Latin American History (Spring 2010)
- HST 385 - Modern Spanish Central & South America (Spring 2010)
- HST 201 - Historical Methods and Skills (Spring 2009)
- HST 385 - Modern Spanish Central and South America (Spring 2009)
- IAH 211 - Area Studies Americas (Spring 2009)
- HST 453 - Special Topics in Latin American History (Fall 2009)
- HST 384 - Modern Mexico (Fall 2009)
- HST 150 - World History since 1500 (Fall 2009)
- HST 150 - World History since 1500 (Fall 2009)
- HST 150 - World History since 1500 (Fall 2009)
- HST 150 - World History since 1500 (Fall 2009)
Significant Scholarly Activities
Journal Articles
- Benjamin Smith. "The Politics of Anticlericalism and Resistance: The Diocese of Huajuapam de Leon 1930-1940." Journal of Latin American Studies 37.3 (August 2005): 469-506.
- Benjamin Smith. "El mito de Benito Juarez en Oaxaca." El Imparcial . (June 2006):
- Benjamin Smith. "El suicidio de un diputado: La inestablidad del régimen pos-revolucionario." Agenda Política, Periodismo de Investigación y Análisis 1.2 (February 2004):
- Benjamin Smith. "Defending “Our Beautiful Freedom: State Formation and Local Autonomy in Oaxaca, 1930-1940." Mexican Studies/Estudios Mexicanos 23.1 (Winter 2007): 125-154.
- Benjamin Smith. "Inventing tradition at gunpoint: Culture, Caciquismo and State Formation in the Region Mixe, Oaxaca (1930-1959)." Bulletin of Latin American Research 27.3 (2008): 215-234.
Book Chapter/Articles
- Benjamin Smith, "New lines of inquiry into the post-revolutionary state in Oaxaca (1934-1947)." In Historia, sociedad y literatura de Oaxaca. Nuevos enfoques, edited by Carlos Sanchez Silva. Mexico City: IIHUABJO-IEEPO, 2004:
- Benjamin Smith, ""The Priest's Party": Local religion and Panismo in Huajuapam de Leon"." In Faith and Impiety in Revolutionary Mexico: God’s Revolution?, edited by Matthew Butler. London: Palgrave Macmillan, 2008: