Drawing on declassified surveillance documents and original ethnographic research, Alan Shane Dillingham, Ph.D., assistant professor of Latin American history at Albright College has published “Oaxaca Resurgent: Indigeneity, Development, and Inequality in Twentieth-Century Mexico,” with Stanford University Press. The book examines how Indigenous people in one of Mexico’s most rebellious states shaped local and national politics during the 20th century.
A citizen of the Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma, Dillingham spent high school studying Spanish in Mexico, in the aftermath of an Indigenous uprising led by the Ejercito Zapatista de Liberacion Nacional. His research focuses on the historical experiences of Native peoples of the Americas. In particular, he focuses on 20th century Mexico, the intersection of anticolonial politics and educational and development policy, and labor and youth-led social movements – connecting the history and politics of Native peoples across the Americas in his teaching and scholarship.
“When I teach writing in my courses, I like to share my own writing struggles with students,” said Dillingham. “Just as in their essays, this book went through countless drafts and revisions.”
In “Oaxaca Resurgent,” Dillingham traces the contested history of indigenous development and the trajectory of the Mexican government’s Instituto Nacional Indigenista, the most ambitious agency of its kind in the Americas. This book shows how generations of Indigenous actors, operating from within the Mexican government while also challenging its authority, proved instrumental in democratizing the local teachers’ trade union and implementing bilingual education. Focusing on the experiences of anthropologists, government bureaucrats, trade unionists and activists, Dillingham explores the relationship between indigeneity, rural education and development, and the political radicalism of the Global Sixties.
Hardcover ISBN: 9781503614949 | Paperback ISBN: 9781503627840 | Ebook ISBN: 9781503627857
