Graduate Research

From January 15th, 2025 to February 25th 2025, Chancellor’s Doctoral Fellow and Graduate Research Assistant Kip Perry, conducted research in Mexico City, Mexico, exploring early modern Mexican science, philosophy, and ethnohistory through archival sources.

Tell us about your research
I’m researching the ways in which Mexican intellectuals of the Enlightenment created and circulated knowledge, and how that knowledge (science, philosophy, art) informed Independence politics and national myths. The inception of my current research on early nineteenth-century science can be traced back to the undergraduate Latin American culture courses I took at NC State over a decade ago. One of my favorite professors introduced me to the casta painting genre, paintings of miscegenation in New Spain, in her lectures on race in colonial Mexico. Her classes in particular used art as the throughline to teach the history of conquest, resistance, revolution, and counterculture. I revisited those paintings during my M.A. in a history of science class, where I analyzed them as racial taxonomies during the long eighteenth century. I’ve been thinking about the interplay of science, art, and politics in the process of racialization since. In short, I’m interested in the way that Mexican intellectuals of the Enlightenment created and circulated knowledge, and how that knowledge (or science, philosophy) informed Independence politics.

Why was Mexico the ideal location for this research?
I chose Mexico City because of its many archives, like the Archivo General de la Nación and Biblioteca Nacional de Antropología e Historia, as well as the archives of the Academia de San Carlos and Biblioteca Rafael Granados García which are both located on National Autonomous University of Mexico’s campus. These archives all house a variety of primary sources that pertain to scientific, political, and artistic culture of the late eighteenth and early nineteenth century. I also made plans to meet with some folks in the city to talk about their research and talk to the reference desk workers about recent secondary sources written by Mexican scholars on my research topic. I was able to go to many of the art museums on the weekends to check out installations that showcased some of the art I’ve been researching for years that I’d only ever been able to view online. And, since Mexico City is so close to Puebla, I was able to meet with friends at Benemérita Universidad Autónoma de Puebla who gave me a rapid introduction to Creole and Indigenous science, art, and religion in Puebla.

What was a typical day like for you while in Mexico City?
On Tuesdays and Thursdays, I woke up early to eat breakfast and prepare for my Yucatec Maya class. After class wrapped up around 10 am, I would either walk to the Biblioteca Nacional de Antropología e Historia or use the metro to get to UNAM’s campus. In the afternoon, I would head back to where I stayed in Roma Norte to make dinner. I’d reserve the evenings for organizing my notes, chores, or reading for leisure. Other days, I would do pretty much the same, except I would also work on a draft of my dissertation prospectus in the evenings and practice Yucatec Maya. Everyday involved a lot of walking around my part of the city to think, drinking a lot of coffee, and doing a lot of reading. I burned through at least six novels and three tins of instant coffee and I maxed out my free storage on Zotero.