Research Areas
Urban and Environmental Studies
I write about urban and environmental issues. My research addresses urban, environmental, and regional issues in the history of cities and coastal ecologies at the urban-ocean interface. My broader theoretical research on cities focuses on urban history, urban economics, and the spatial growth of cities and regions. I am also interested in the intersection of public history, the social sciences, and public policy and how they can inform sustainable development in modern-day cities.
My current and future publications contribute to two main goals and areas of study: 1) to start new conversations on the urban, economic, and environmental history of seashore planning, “blue urbanism,” 2) to explore the history of urban reinvention in seaports and beach resorts in modern Mexico and Latin America.
Mexican History and Latin America Studies
Pacific Studies
My current and future publications contribute to three main goals and areas of study in Pacific Studies: 1) to explore the connections between the first transpacific America (1565-1815) and the Pacific Century of our present-day multipolar world. 2) To reposition Mexico in its North American and Pacific Basin frameworks. 3) And to build bridges between the fields of Mexican studies, urban, and Pacific studies.
U.S.-Mexico Relations
Public Scholarship
I am interested in the intersection of public scholarship in history, the social sciences, and the humanities, and they can inform policymaking and public diplomacy.