I am currently Associate Professor of Modern Languages at the University of Texas Arlington, as well as the coordinator of the Spanish Section. I received my B.A. from the University of California Santa Cruz in 1991, and my Ph.D. from the University of California, San Diego in 1996. Between 2000 and 2004 I taught Hispanic Studies at Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island. Between 1992 and 2003 the focus of my research was primarily Simón Bolívar and the Cult of Bolívar. Since 2003 I have been working almost exclusively on the intellectual and cultural history of nineteenth-century Mexico. I am presently working on the U.S. Mexico War of 1846-1848. My research page is here.