I work on the political, social and cultural history of modern Latin America, particularly Mexico. My research to date has explored the politics of nation-state building after the Mexican revolution, particularly military and regional politics, popular protest, political violence, gender, and historical memory.  I continue to work on these themes, and am particularly interested in the politics of history during Mexico's so-called transition to democracy, and in comparing Mexico's experience with the rest of Latin America.  I am also developing a new project which takes me into more unfamiliar territory: the relationship between state-building, capitalism, and human-animal relations in modern Mexico. As part of this project I am currently researching the political history of the U.S.-Mexican campaign against foot-and-mouth disease (aftosa) in the 1940s and 1950s, with the support of the Wellcome Trust.