Ana Sabau

Ana Sabau is Assistant Professor of Spanish. Her research focuses on the study of eighteenth and nineteenth-century Latin American written and visual culture, with a special emphasis on Mexico. Her first book The Race War Paradigm: Riot and Rebellion in Mexico (UT Press, 2022) studies the making of “race war” as a political paradigm and argues that appeals to the alleged threat of racial uprisings were crucial in mediating Mexico’s complicated transition from a colony of the Spanish Empire to an independent nation-state. The Race War Paradigm challenges conventional histories on the erosion of racial boundaries in Mexico by arguing that after Independence, colonial racializing practices and policies were continuously adapted by the new government in order to contain and repress popular demands—riots, rebellions, even civil wars—for freedom and democracy. She is the author of numerous articles published in collected volumes and peer-reviewed journals like the Journal of Latin American Cultural Studies and Revista de Estudios Hispánicos. Other research interests include studying the histories of labor and property as they intersect with processes of racialization. She is specifically interested in exploring Mexico’s insertion in the global networks of indentured and convict labor; as well as the question of social reproduction and domestic work.
 

• Latin American Studies 
• Literary and Cultural Theory
• Visual and Material Culture
• Indigenous Studies
• Gender Studies