Associate professor of history Bradley Benton’s research has been featured on a Library of Congress blog as part of National Native American Heritage Month.
The showcased piece is “Myths and Realities of the Pre- and Post-Conquest Indigenous World: New Avenues of Mesoamerican Ethnohistory,” an essay Benton co-wrote about the latest trends in research on Native peoples in Mesoamerica.
“Many people don’t realize that the Library of Congress has significant holdings that are not about the United States. The Library’s Hispanic Reading Room, for instance, does really great work promoting holdings related to Latin America and advancing our understanding of that region,” said Benton, who is a contributing editor of the Library of Congress’s Handbook of Latin American Studies, which released its latest issue this month.
“I’m proud to be a part of their work. I’m also especially proud to have my work featured as a part of their commemoration of National Native American Heritage Month,” he said. “The history of Native peoples both within the U.S. and in other parts of the Americas is vitally important to our own national history and to the history of humankind.”
Benton’s research interests include colonial Mexico; Nahua (Aztec) politics, society and culture; the early modern Atlantic world; and cross-cultural contact and exchange.He earned his bachelor’s degree at Furman University, Greenville, South Carolina; master’s degree in Latin American studies from Tulane University; and doctorate in history at UCLA. He is the author of the book, “The Lords of Tetzcoco: The Transformation of Indigenous Rule in Postconquest Central Mexico,” published by the Cambridge University Press in 2017.
As a student-focused, land-grant, research university, we serve our citizens.
