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I am an historian of colonial-era Latin America, of the early modern Atlantic World, and of popular music. My five areas of specialization are the history of colonial Mesoamerica, primarily Yucatan, Guatemala, and Belize; Aztec and Maya history; the African Diaspora in Spanish America; the Spanish Conquest era in the Americas; and the history of popular music. I have published twenty-four books—forty-one counting all editions, in seven languages; seven of my books are available as audiobooks. My eight books published since 2020 The Maya: A Very Short Introduction (Oxford, 2020), Blue Moves (Bloomsbury, 2020), The Maya Apocalypse and its Western Roots (co-authored, Rowman & Littlefield, 2021), Seven Myths of the Spanish Conquest (Oxford, 2021 updated edition), The Friar and the Maya (Colorado, co-authored, winner of the 2023 Conference on Latin American History [CLAH] Prize prize for best book on Mexican history), Ghosts: Journeys to Post-Pop (Sonicbond, 2024), On Elton John (Oxford, 2025), and The Nine Lives of Chirstopher Columbus (Norton, 2025). My 2018 monograph, When Montezuma Met Cortés: A True History of the Meeting that Changed History, winner of the 2020 Cline Prize for best book on Indigenous history, is available in three languages and an audiobook. My monograph, The Black Middle: Africans, Mayas, and Spaniards in Colonial Yucatan, won the 2009 CLAH prize for best book on Mexican history. I am a former editor of Ethnohistory journal (2007-16) and of the Hispanic American Historical Review (2017-22). I edit two book series: Penn State Press’s Latin American Originals series (which I founded in 2007); and Cambridge University Press’s Cambridge Latin American Studies (co-editor, since 2015). I am a former president of the American Society for Ethnohistory (2017-18), I served on the Board of Governors of the John Carter Brown Library (JCB) (2014-23), and my research has been supported by National Endowment for the Humanities fellowships, a Guggenheim Fellowship, a Leverhulme Visiting Professorship (University of London), the Greenleaf Distinguished Chair of Latin American Studies at Tulane University, and fellowships at the Institute for Advanced Study (Princeton), the JCB, the Library of Congress, and the US Capitol. I am currently writing a book on the early history of Belize titled The Invention of Colonialism.
Ph.D., University of California, 1992
M.A., University of California, 1989
B.A., Oxford University, 1986
The Maya Apocalypse and its Western Roots. With Amara Solari. Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield, 2021.
Seven Myths of the Spanish Conquest, Updated Edition. New York: Oxford University Press, 2021.
The Maya: A Very Short Introduction (with Amara Solari). Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2020.
Entre Mayas y Españoles: Africanos en el Yucatán Colonial. Mexico City: Fondo de Cultura Económica, 2020.
Blue Moves. 33 1/3 series. New York: Bloomsbury, 2020
Return to Ixil: Maya Society in an Eighteenth-Century Yucatec Town (with Mark Christensen). Boulder: University Press of Colorado, 2019.
Cuando Moctezuma conoció a Cortés. Mexico City: Taurus, 2019.
When Montezuma Met Cortés: The True Story of the Meeting that Changed History. New York: Ecco, 2018.
Latin America in Colonial Times (with Kris Lane). 2nd edition. Cambridge: Cambridge: University Press, 2018.
Конкуридаторите. Sofia: Ashur, 2017.
I Sette Miti Della Conquista Spagnola. Palermo: 21 Editore, 2017.
Conquista de Buenas Palabras y de Guerra: una visión indígena de la conquista (with Michel Oudijk). Mexico City: UNAM, 2014.
Los Conquistadores (with Felipe Fernández-Armesto). Madrid: Alianza Editorial, 2013.
The Conquistadors: A Very Short Introduction (with Felipe Fernández-Armesto). Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2012.
The Riddle of Latin America (with Kris Lane). Boston: Cengage, 2011.
2012 and the End of the World: The Western Roots of the Maya Apocalypse (with Amara Solari). Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield, 2011.
The Black Middle: Africans, Mayas, and Spaniards in Colonial Yucatan. Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2009.
Kislak Fellowship, Kluge Center, Library of Congress (2017)
Capitol Fellowship, US Capitol Historical Society (2017)
Membership, Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton; Saunders Fellowship, John Carter Brown Library, Brown University (2013-14)
Fellowship, Institute for the Arts and Humanities, Pennsylvania State University (2011)
Faculty Scholar Award for Outstanding Achievement, Pennsylvania State University (2007)
John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation Fellowship (2003-2004)
NEH Fellowship, John Carter Brown Library, Brown University (2001-2002)
HIST178 – Colonial Latin American History
HIST011 – World History II
HIST197H – The End of the World: The History of Apocalyptic Thought
HIST302W – Undergraduate Seminar
HIST569 – Seminar in Latin American History