Assistant professor Michael Matthews presented at the 58th annual Rocky Mountain Council of Latin American Studies in Santa Fe, New Mexico.
His paper, “Festivals of Progress: The Railway Ceremony in Porfirian Mexico,” investigates how government officials used railway inaugurations as a means to promote new, modern values that corresponded to a liberal, capitalistic, and civilized country as well as to promote a sense of national unity and identity.
He also served as Chair and Commentator for the panel “Verse, Identity, and Power: Exploring the Role of Music, Poetry, and Print in Modern Mexico.”