DR. SARAH OSTEN
University of Vermont, History Department
Wheeler House, Room 303, 133 S. Prospect Street, Burlington, VT 05405
sarah.osten@uvm.edu / 802-656-1397 / pronouns: she/her
Employment
2022-present Director, Graduate Studies, History Department, University of Vermont
2022-present Director, Latin American and Caribbean Studies Program, University of Vermont
2019-present Associate Professor, Department of History, University of Vermont
2013-2019 Assistant Professor, Department of History, University of Vermont
2012-2013 Visiting Assistant Professor, Department of History, Northwestern University
2010-2012 Mellon Postdoctoral Fellow in Latin American and Caribbean Studies, Department of History, Northwestern University
Education
2010 Ph.D. History, University of Chicago.
Dissertation: “Peace by Institutions: The Rise of Political Parties and the Making of the Modern Mexican State, 1920-1928”
2004 M.A. Latin American Studies, University of Chicago.
Thesis: “‘Beautifying the Revolution’: The Origins and the Significance of Women’s Suffrage in Chiapas, Mexico, 1920-27”
2000 B.A. Latin American Studies and International Relations, Brown University.
Grants, Awards and Fellowships
2024 Finalist, UVM Kroepsch-Maurice Award for Excellence in Teaching
2023-4 University of Vermont Lattie Coor Collaborative Fellowship, Immigration Justice (Organizing Fellow)
2023 University of Vermont Humanities Center Publication Subvention Grant
2022 University of Vermont Faculty Research Support Award
2019-2020 University of Vermont Humanities Center Faculty Fellow
2018 Finalist, UVM Kroepsch-Maurice Award for Excellence in Teaching
2009-2010 Doris G. Quinn Foundation Dissertation Year Fellowship
2009 University of Chicago Doolittle-Harrison Travel Fellowship
2009 Latin American Studies Association Conference Travel Grant
2008 University of Chicago Doolittle-Harrison Travel Fellowship
2008 Andrew W. Mellon Foundation Latin American Research Travel Grant
2008 University of Chicago Ignacio Martín Baró Prize Lectureship
2006-2007 Fulbright-Hays Doctoral Dissertation Research Abroad Fellowship
2005-6, 2007-9 Andrew W. Mellon Foundation Fellowship in Latin American History
2005 and 2006 University of Chicago Latin American Studies Field Research Grant
2005 University of Chicago Kunstadter Travel Research Grant
2005 Andrew W. Mellon Foundation Latin American Research Travel Grant
2004 Tinker Foundation Field Research Grant
Books
The Mexican Revolution's Wake: The Making of a Political System, 1920–1929. Cambridge Latin American Studies. Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press, 2018.
Honorable Mention, 2019 Best Book in the Social Sciences, Mexico section of the Latin American Studies Association (LASA)
Spanish language edition: Secuelas de la revolución: El nacimiento de un sistema político, 1920-1929. San Cristóbal de las Casas, México: Centro de Investigaciones Multidisciplinarias Sobre Chiapas y la Frontera Sur, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México (CIMSUR-UNAM), 2024. https://www.cimsur.unam.mx/index.php/publicacion/obra/186
Manuscript in progress: Exit to the Future: Mexican Solidarity with Central American Revolutions, 1975-1985.
Articles and Book Chapters
2024: “Lawyers, Guns and Money: Revolution, Religion and Authoritarianism in Tabasco, Mexico, 1920-1936.” Chapter in an edited volume entitled Anti-Catholicism in the Mexican Revolution, eds. Jurgen Buchenau and David Dalton, University of New Mexico Press. Peer reviewed.
2023: “‘To Defend the Nicaraguan Revolution is to Defend Mexico’: Mexican Solidarity with the Sandinista Revolution, 1974-82.” Cold War History, November 30, 2023. Peer reviewed.
2023: “La formación del estado posrevolucionario en el sureste.” Chapter in an edited volume entitled Economía política de la reconstrucción nacional, 1917-1938: Estado, economía y sociedad en el México posrevolucionario. Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México (UNAM).
2021: “Murder, Impunity and the Mexican State”/ “Asesinato, impunidad y el estado mexicano,” The Mexico Violence Research Project, May 27, 2021. In English: https://www.mexicoviolence.org/votingamidviolence/murder-impunity En Español: https://www.mexicoviolence.org/votingamidviolence/asesinato-impunidad
2020: “Out of the Shadows: Violence and State Consolidation in Postrevolutionary Mexico, 1927-1940, The Latin Americanist, June 2020, Volume 64, Issue 2, 169-99. Peer reviewed.
Honorable Mention, 2021 Best Article in the Social Sciences, Mexico Section of the Latin American Studies Association (LASA)
2019: “Mexico’s Political Laboratory: The Revolutionary and Postrevolutionary Southeast,” chapter in The Oxford Encyclopedia of Mexican History and Culture, Oxford University Press, January 2019. Also published in 2016 online in the Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Latin American History. Peer reviewed.
2014: “A Crooked Path to the Franchise: Women’s Suffrage and the Legislation of Citizenship in Post-revolutionary Mexico, 1925-1937.” The Latin Americanist, June 2014, Volume 58, Issue 2, 97-117. Peer reviewed.
2013: “Trials By Fire: National Political Lessons From Failed State Elections in Post- revolutionary Mexico, 1920-5.” Mexican Studies/Estudios Mexicanos, Winter 2013 (February), Volume 29, Number 1, 238-279. Peer reviewed.
2010: “Vida y muerte del general Carlos A. Vidal: Significado e interpretación regional y nacional, 1915-1927,” chapter in an edited volume entitled La revolución mexicana en Chiapas un siglo después (PROIMMSE-IIA-UNAM, 2010), 395-428.
2007: “The Implications and Legacies of Chiapas’ 1925 Women’s Suffrage Decree,” Pueblos y Fronteras (PROIMMSE-IIA-UNAM), 2007, Núm. 3 (online). Peer reviewed.
Book Reviews
(2024): Review of Eline Van Ommen, Nicaragua Must Survive: Sandinista Revolutionary Diplomacy in the Global Cold War, for H-LATAM (forthcoming).
2022: Review of Paul Gillingham, Unrevolutionary Mexico: The Birth of a Strange Dictatorship, for the Hispanic American Historical Review, 102 (3), 568-9.
2022: Review of Eric Zolov, The Last Good Neighbor: Mexico in the Global 1960s, for The Middle Ground Journal, Number 23, Spring 2022, 7-8.
2020: Review of Colby Ristow, A Revolution Unfinished: The Chegomista Rebellion and the Limits of Revolutionary Democracy in Juchitán, Oaxaca, for The Americas, April 2020, Volume 77, Number 2, 326-8.
2020: Review of Benjamin T. Smith, The Mexican Press and Civil Society, 1940-1976: Stories from the Newsroom, Stories from the Street, for the Bulletin of Latin American Research, Volume 39, Issue 2, 275-6.
2018: Review of Amelia Kiddle, Mexico’s Relations with Latin America During the Cárdenas Era, for the Bulletin of Latin American Research, Vol. 37, No. 4, pp. 493–533, 2018.
2012: Review of Aaron W. Navarro, Political Intelligence and the Creation of Modern Mexico, 1938-1954, in The Historian. Volume 4, Issue 2, Summer 2012.
Courses Taught
Introductory/survey:
Colonial Latin America
Modern Latin America
Latin American Indigenous History
Migration Studies (interdisciplinary, co-taught)
Intermediate:
Drugs in the Americas
Latin American Populism
Latin American Indigenous History
Modern Mexico
Women and Revolutions in Latin America
Seminar/advanced/graduate:
Latin American Revolutions (first year (TAP/LASP) seminar)
Latin American Authoritarianism (first year Honors College seminar)
Latin America: History and Memory (advanced research and methods seminar taught at both undergraduate and graduate levels)
Asylum Case Research (advanced undergraduate service-learning seminar)
Conference Panels Chaired and Organized
2019: Panel Co-organizer and Chair: "Violence, Dissidence and Resistance in Postrevolutionary Mexico," Latin American Studies Association International Congress, Boston, MA, May 24, 2019.
2013: Panel Organizer and Chair: “The Once and Future Party?: The Long Career of Mexico’s Institutional Revolutionary Party (1929-2013).” Latin American Studies Association International Congress, Washington DC, May 30, 2013.
2012: Panel Organizer: “Mexico in the 1920s: New Historical and Historiographical Perspectives.” Annual meeting of the Conference on Latin American History, Chicago, January 6, 2012.
Conference Papers and Other Presentations
2024: “El socialismo del sureste: sus significados y legados para todo México.” Presented at the Coloquio Internacional, “Aquellas Ideas: El socialismo en México durante la primera mitad del siglo XX,” Colegio Mexiquense, Toluca, México, August 13, 2024 (via Zoom).
2024: “Secuelas de la Revolución: El nacimiento de un sistema político, 1920-1929,” book presentation, Universidad Veracruzana, Xalapa, Mexico, May 29, 2024.
2024: “Secuelas de la Revolución: El nacimiento de un sistema político, 1920-1929,” book presentation, Centro de Investigaciones Multidisciplinarias Sobre Chiapas y la Frontera Sur (CIMSUR-UNAM), San Cristóbal de Las Casas, Chiapas, Mexico, May 23, 2024.
2024: “Secuelas de la Revolución: El nacimiento de un sistema político, 1920-1929,” book presentation, Librería Fondo de Cultura Económica, Tuxtla Gutiérrez, Chiapas, Mexico, May 21, 2024.
2024: “They are Here Because We Were There: Migration from the Northern Triangle.” Invited lecture at the Windham World Affairs Council, Brattleboro, VT, March 21, 2024.
2024: “‘For the Government to Become Good’: The Political Vision and National Significance of Felipe Carrillo Puerto.” Presented at University College London, conference on Socialism and Indigeneity in the Americas, London, England, January 9, 2024.
2024: “‘I Embody Revolution’: Mexico’s Gay and Lesbian Left and Central American Revolutionary Solidarity, 1978-1985.” Presented at the annual meeting of the American Historical Association (AHA), San Francisco, CA, January 6, 2024.
2022: “‘Defender la revolución nicaraguense es defender a México’: solidaridad mexicana con la revolución Sandinista.” Presented at the XVI Reunión Internacional de Historiadores de México, Austin, Texas, October 30-November 2, 2022.
2022: Comment on Paul Gillingham’s Unrevolutionary Mexico: The Birth of a Strange Dictatorship, Howard Cline Prize in Mexican History panel, Latin American Studies Association (LASA) congress (online), May 7, 2022.
2022: “El Partido Socialista Chiapaneco: su formación y actuación en las fronteras de Chiapas, 1917-1927." Presented at the “Aspectos sociales-políticos-económicos en la conformación de las fronteras de Chiapas, 1528-1996" seminar, Centro de Investigaciones Multidisciplinarias Sobre Chiapas y la Frontera Sur (CIMSUR-UNAM), San Cristóbal de Las Casas, Chiapas, Mexico, January 4, 2022.
2021: “El Partido Socialista Chiapaneco: un análisis sociodemográfico y politico, 1917-1927.” Presented at Congreso Centroamericano de la Historia (virtual), Universidad de las Ciencias y Artes de Chiapas (UNICACH), August 18, 2021.
2020: “ICE Detention in the Age of COVID,” Panelist. Brown University, Center for Latin American and Caribbean Studies webinar, April 15, 2020.
2020: “Live From the Border.” Invited lecture at Education and Enrichment for Everyone, South Burlington, VT, February 28, 2020.
2020: “La formación del estado posrevolucionario en el sureste.” Invited keynote lecture at the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM), Economic History Colloquium, Mexico City, February 5-7, 2020.
2019: “Asylum, Detention and Migration on the US Southern Border.” Invited presentation with Rebecca Wasserman at the University of Vermont Honors College Faculty Seminar, Burlington, VT, August 12, 2019.
2019: “Violence, Memory and State Formation in Mexico, 1926-1940.” Presented at the Latin American Studies Association (LASA) International Congress, Boston, MA, May 24-7, 2019.
2019: “The Mexican Revolution’s Wake: The Making of a Political System, 1920-1929.” Invited talk given at the Katz Center for Mexican Studies, University of Chicago, Chicago IL, May 14, 2019.
2019: “Reasonable and Unreasonable Fears: The Central American Migrant Exodus in Historical Perspective.” Keynote address given at the UVM Phi Alpha Theta ceremony, Alpha Alpha Psi Chapter, Burlington VT, April 15, 2019.
2019: “Credible Fear: A Panel Discussion on Work with Asylum Seekers in Dilley, Texas.” Invited presentation with Katherine Goldman at the Watson Institute of International and Public Affairs, Brown University, Providence RI, January 25, 2019.
2019: “Out of the Shadows: Mexico’s Reckoning with State-led Violence in the Recent Past, 1927-40.” presented at the Conference on Latin American History, Chicago IL, January 3-6, 2019.
2018: “An Iron Fist in a Red Glove: Socialism and Authoritarianism in Postrevolutionary Mexico.” Presented at the conference of the Canadian Association of Latin American and Caribbean Studies, Montreal, May 17, 2018.
2018: “A Nation of Parties.” Invited book presentation/student meeting, Dartmouth College, Hanover NH, February 16, 2018.
2017: “Political Violence and State Consolidation in Postrevolutionary Mexico, 1927-40.” Presented at the Social Science History Association Conference, Montreal, November 3, 2017.
2017: Discussant: “Images in Mexico and Abroad of Plutarco Elias Calles.” Rocky Mountain Council for Latin American Studies Conference, Salt Lake City, UT, April 5-7, 2017.
2014: Discussant: “Party Formation in Latin America: Opposition, Mass, and Authoritarian Parties in Comparative and Historical Perspective.” Social Science History Association Conference, Toronto, November 7, 2014.
2014: “Los significados de la reinvestigación oficial de la matanza de Huitzilac, 1935-1939.” Presented at the XIV Reunión Internacional de Historiadores de México, Chicago, September 19, 2014.
2013: “A Surfeit of Heroes: Political Violence and the Foundations of the Modern Mexican Political System, 1920-1929.” Presented at the Latin American Studies Association International Congress, Washington DC, May 30, 2013.
2012: “Traitors, Dreamers and Statesmen: Military Rebellions and the Shaping of the Post-Revolutionary Mexican State, 1920-1929,” Talk given at Northwestern University, Buffett Center Faculty and Fellows Colloquium, April 27, 2012.
2012: “Before There was One: Early Post-revolutionary Political Parties in Mexico, 1920-1929,” presented at the annual meeting of the Conference on Latin American History, Chicago, January 6, 2012.
2011: “A Brief History of Mexico and Thoughts on Teaching Modern Mexican History.” Invited lecture at the social science department retreat of Northside College Preparatory High School in Chicago, Evanston IL, November 18, 2011.
2011: “Which Mexican Revolution Was Institutionalized? A Reexamination of the Origins of Mexico’s Party of the State,” presented at Northwestern University, Latin American Graduate Students Group, November 4, 2011.
2010 : “Peace by Institutions: The Rise of Political Parties and the Making of the Modern Mexican State, 1920-1928,” Northwestern University, Latin American Studies Center Colloquium, November 4, 2010
2009: “Callismo in Chiapas, 1920-1927: Mexico’s Forgotten Revolution,” presented at the Latin American Studies Association International Congress, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, June 12, 2009.
2009: “The Disappearance and Reappearance of Powers: Federal Responses to the Chiapas Electoral Crisis of 1924-5,” presented at the Latin American History Workshop, University of Chicago, February 19, 2009.
2008: “Los Significados Regionales y Nacionales de la Vida y Muerte del General Carlos A. Vidal, 1915-1927,” presented at the annual Encuentro Pueblos y Fronteras of PROIMMSE-IIA-UNAM, San Cristóbal de LC, Chiapas, Mexico, June 13, 2008.
2008: “Chiapas’ Forgotten Revolutionary: The Early Career of General Carlos A. Vidal, 1913-1920,” Presented at the Latin American History Workshop, University of Chicago, May 22, 2008.
2008: “State Level Women’s Suffrage Measures in Southeastern Mexico, 1920-1925,” presented at the American Historical Association Annual Meeting, Washington, D.C., January 4, 2008.
2007: “‘Para Embellecer la Revolución’: Los Orígenes y los Significados del Sufragio Femenil en Chiapas, 1920-1927,” presented at PROIMMSE-IIA-UNAM, San Cristóbal de Las Casas, Chiapas, Mexico, May 7, 2007.
2007: “Callismo and the Radicalism of Southeastern Mexico, 1920-1929,” presented at the Fulbright/COMEXUS 2007 Midyear Conference, Mexico City, March 2, 2007.
2006: “Callismo and the Radicalism of Southeastern Mexico, 1920-1929,” presented at the Mellon Foundation Latin American History Conference, Yale University, New Haven, CT, April 27, 2006.
2006: “‘Beautifying the Revolution’: The Origins and the Significance of Women’s Suffrage in Chiapas, Mexico, 1920-27, ”presented at the Latin American Studies Master’s Student Conference, University of Chicago, February 11, 2006.
Academic Service
2023- present: University of Vermont, College of Arts and Sciences, Immigration Justice Program
Co-Founder
2022- present: University of Vermont, Department of History
Director of Graduate Studies
2022- present: University of Vermont, Latin American and Caribbean Studies Program
Director
2022- present: University of Vermont, Critical Race and Ethnic Studies Program
Steering Committee Member
2022-3: University of Vermont, Department of History
African American History Search Committee
2021-2: Mexico Section of the Latin American Studies Association (LASA)
Prize Committee, Best Article in the Social Sciences
2018-20, 21-2: University of Vermont, Department of History
Graduate Studies Committee
2019-22: University of Vermont, College of Arts and Sciences
Honors Committee (3-year elected term, interdisciplinary studies)
2020: University of Vermont
Global Citizenship General Education Requirement ad hoc committee
2019-20: Mexico Section of the Latin American Studies Association (LASA)
Prize Committee, Best Book in the Social Sciences
2016-9: University of Vermont, College of Arts and Sciences
Honors Committee (3-year elected term, at-large member)
2014-8: University of Vermont, Department of History
Communications and Social Media Committee (chair)
2014-5: University of Vermont, Department of History
Undergraduate Studies Committee
Faculty Senator (Spring 2015)
2013-4: University of Vermont, Department of History
Faculty Recorder
2008: University of Chicago Mellon Foundation Latin American History Graduate Student Conference
Student Coordinator, May 2-3, 2008
2006-2008: Archivo General de la Nación (México)
Conducted the first inventories of the General Carlos A. Vidal personal papers collection
2006: University of Chicago Latin American Studies Master’s Student Conference
Founder and Student Coordinator, February 11, 2006
2005-2006: University of Chicago Latin American History Workshop
Coordinator
Professional Experience
2002-2003 The Massachusetts Budget and Policy Center, Boston, MA
Organizational Outreach Coordinator and Office Manager
2000-2002 Harvard University, Center for European Studies, Cambridge, MA
Assistant to the Librarian & Staff Assistant
Languages
English (native)
Spanish (fluent: reading, writing, speaking)