Research Projects
I am an interdisciplinary and transnational historian with a deep interest in various subjects. Some of them are: visual culture, print culture, sexual diversity, Indigenous history, and religion. My current and former research projects have addressed all of these areas.
Borderlands of Desire and Liberation: A Transnational History of Gay Print Culture in the Americas
This book project examines the production, content, circulation, and reception of leading gay periodicals published in the Americas from the early 1970s through the mid-1990s. It also traces the formation of transnational networks of gay activists, editors, publishers, and artists who used periodicals and images to connect across borders and to advance gay liberation movements. The book argues that gay periodicals were at the center of the transnational history of gay liberation, both because they facilitated the circulation of information across borders and because they visualized the political goals of the gay liberation movement.
The book is under contract with Duke University Press and I have published related research in the Hispanic American Historical Review, Left History, and Historia Mexicana (forthcoming in January 2025).
Evil Seduction: A Queer History of the Devil in Mexican Popular Culture
My second book-length project is tentatively titled “Evil Seduction: A Queer History of the Devil in Mexican Popular Culture.” This project studies the visual representation of the devil in the popular culture of modern and contemporary Mexico, with a particular focus on graphic arts, films, periodicals, digital media, and queer cultural production. The project examines how Mexican artists and activists have used the figure of the devil and other demonic imagery to confront sexism and homophobia, as well as to grapple with the legacies of colonialism, imperialism, and state violence. The project places these cultural products against the backdrop of various historical transformations and events that include the Cold War, women’s liberation, and LGBTQ+ activism.