HistoryHub
Connecting past and present
Professor Ben Vinson III
is Provost and Executive Vice President at Case Western Reserve University at Cleveland, Ohio. He is also a Professor of History at Case Western’s Department of History. A graduate of Dartmouth and Columbia universities, Professor Vinson served on the faculties of Barnard College and Pennsylvania State University before joining Johns Hopkins University in 2006 as a professor of history and founding director of its Centre for Africana Studies.
Professor Vinson is a historian of Latin America whose scholarship focuses on colonial Mexico, with particular emphasis on race and the African presence in Mexico. He is the author and editor of a number of works, including Bearing Arms for His Majesty: The Free‐Colored Militia in Colonial Mexico (published in 2001), Flight: The Life of Virgil Richardson, A Tuskegee Airman in Mexico (published in 2004), Black Mexico: Race and Society from Colonial to Modern Times, co‐edited with Matthew Restall and published in 2009, and Africans to Colonial Spanish America, co‐edited with Sherwin K. Bryant and Rachel O’Toole, and published in 2012.
His most recent work, Before Mestizaje: Lobos, Moriscos, Coyotes and the Frontiers of Race and Caste in Colonial Mexico (Cambridge University Press) is the subject of episode 18 of History Hub’s podcast series – ‘Kingdom, Empire and Plus Ultra: conversations on the history of Portugal and Spain, 1415-1898′.
Before Mestizaje is an examination of race and caste in colonial Mexico, and opens new dimensions on the history of these issues in Latin America by examining what Vinson refers to as ‘extreme’ caste groups in Mexico. Through examining the lives and experiences of these groups and others, the work seeks a deeper understanding between the idea of Mestizaje and the colonial caste system, by arguing that if we are to understand the concept of Mestizaje, we must understand earlier forms of racial mixture, hybridity, and elasticity that served as its precursor in the Spanish colonial world.
Ben Vinson’s conversation with series host Dr. Edward Collins is now available as a podcast on Apple, Spotify and Soundcloud.
Kingdom, Empire and Plus Ultra
‘Mestizaje and the Frontiers of Race and Caste in Colonial Mexico’, with Professor Ben Vinson (Case Western).
Castas: collection of images relevant to Ben Vinson’s podcast
Kingdom, Empire and Plus Ultra
This History Hub podcast series features interviews with experts in the areas of Portuguese and Spanish history, from the beginning of the Portuguese discoveries in 1415 to the end of Spanish dominion in America in 1898. The interviews, conducted by historian Dr. Edward Collins, cover a range of topics on the domestic and overseas histories of both nations, which include, among others: the Portuguese explorations of Africa and Asia, Spanish navigation and settlement in America, the church in Portugal and Spain, monarchy and intermarriage in the Iberian kingdoms, natural science and mapping in America, the role of nautical science, Irish historical relations with Portugal and Spain, and imperial competition in Europe and overseas. The interviewees comprise a number of established and renowned academics, as well as up-and-coming researchers from universities and institutions worldwide.
This History Hub series is funded by UCD Seed Funding and supported by UCD School of History. Series editor is Mike Liffey (Real Smart Media).
How to listen
Download series episodes on iTunes, stream on Spotify, or listen via Soundcloud.
Explore the series
Image: detail from “Casta painting containing complete set of 16 casta combinations (racial classifications in Spanish colonies in the Americas)” (18th century). By Unknown (Museo Nacional del Virreinato, Tepotzotlán, Mexico) [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons.
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Dr Mark Jones is Assistant Professor in Global History at University College Dublin. A specialist in the history of political violence, war, and revolution, his publications include ‘Founding Weimar. Violence and the German Revolution of 1918-19 (Cambridge University Press, 2016). His latest book is ‘1923: The Forgotten Crisis in the Year of Hitler’s Coup’. This podcast ‘The murder of Walter Rathenau and the survival of Weimar democracy. Mark Jones on the year 1923’ is based on this latest book.
The first in-person meeting of the Military Welfare History Network took place in Sutherland School of Law, University College Dublin on 7 July 2023. The event, which was co-ordinated by Dr Paul Huddie, comprised two keynotes and four panels, totalling 14 speakers. Conference keynotes by Dr Matthew Neufeld (University of Saskatchewan) and Dr Ke-Chin Hsia (Indiana University Bloomington) were recorded and are now available to podcast.
In June 2023 Professor Caitríona Beaumont (LSBU / UCD) joined UCD historians Dr Mary McAuliffe and Dr Fionnuala Walsh to record a podcast on a new project: AFTERLIVES.
The aim of the project is to uncover the afterlives and trace the life stories of lesser known activist women. As Beaumont explains, the inspiration for the project came from a surprising discovery.
