Education:
M.A., 1995, New Mexico State University
Ph.D., 2000, Texas Christian University
About Dr. Newcomer
I am interested in how state power has been created and exercised in Latin America and especially in Mexico since the late nineteenth century. I use methods derived from a variety of academic disciplines to look at the way power is "normalized" in the lives of everyday people through a range of activities—construction projects, mapping, media, education, policing, violence—and, in turn, the ways by which people negotiate and resist the parameters of authority. My first book, Reconciling Modernity, analyzed the state's use of violence in post-revolutionary Mexico. My current research explores the practices of regulating morality and defining state boundaries in Oaxaca, Mexico, during the Porfiriato (1876-1911).
I teach both graduate and undergraduate classes at ETSU, and have had the privilege to work with several talented students who have gone on to excellent PhD programs. Beyond ETSU, I enjoy backpacking, jazz guitar, la patineta, and hanging out with my partner Karen and our son, Ben.
Areas of Academic Specialty
Mexican History
Latin American History
Modernity, State Formation and Resistance
Cultural, Post-Colonial and Spatial History
Courses Recently Taught:
Revolution and Nationalism in Latin America (His. 4730)
History of Mexico (Hist. 4957/5957)
US Relations with Latin America (Hist. 5300)
Cartography and History (Hist. 5300)
US Since 1877 (Hist. 2020)
Selected Publications:
Books:
Reconciling Modernity: Urban State Formation in 1940s León, Mexico. Lincoln: University
of Nebraska Press, 2004.
Articles:
Newcomer, Daniel. “Obfuscating the State Line: Land Conflict and State Formation on Oaxaca’s Periphery, 1856-1912” Journal of Social History. 52, no. 3 (Spring 2019): 783-806.
“Delineating the Peace: Mapping Oaxaca’s Borders, 1856-1912” Journal of Latin American Studies. 50, no. 2 (May 2018): 291-321.
Newcomer, Daniel. “The Symbolic Battleground: The Culture of Modernization in 1940s León, Guanajuato,”Mexican Studies/Estudios Mexicanos 18, no. 1 (Winter 2002): 61-101.
“Archival and Scholarly Resources in Oaxaca City for the Reorganization Period in Mexican History, 1917-1929.” Americas. 54, no. 4 (April 1998): 575-583.
Book Chapter:
"Counter Revolutionary Programs: Social Catholicism and the Cristeros" in William H. Beezley, ed., A Companion to Mexican History and Culture. New York: Wiley, 2011.