Society of Scholars
The Society of Scholars is an intellectual community of humanists of diverse generations, academic ranks, and departmental affiliations who contribute to and learn from one another’s work. Each year, approximately eight faculty and three dissertation research fellowships support members of the Society of Scholars. Scholars in year-long residence at the University of Washington may be invited to participate as well. The group meets biweekly throughout the year to discuss their research in progress.
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2025 - 2026 Society of Scholars
2019 - 2020 Society of Scholars Fellow
Ray Jonas (he/him/his)
Borderlands: A Global History of the Mexican Second Empire
The Mexican Second Empire was established following a European invasion of Mexico in 1862, led by the armed forces of Britain, France, and Spain and exploiting the distraction of the American Civil War. Although the Empire was ephemeral – it collapsed in 1867 – its history underlines issues that proved durable. Borderlands situates the Empire within European anxieties about Manifest Destiny and the continental scale of the American Republic, as well as a racial vision of Latin America at the mercy of Yankee aggression. Throughout, the Empire served as the guardian of a modernizing settler colonialism; in its twilight months, the Empire served as a haven for Confederate refugees and the plantation economy.