On sabbatical during the spring 2022 semester, Stanley Rutland Professor of American History Andrew Wood spent a good deal of his time researching and writing a chapter on the Independence War in Mexico. With Veracruz as his focus, Wood describes how the port and neighboring colonial fortress San Juan de Ulúa became hotly contested sites of struggle during the decade-long conflict that eventually gave rise to the Republic of Mexico.  

Later in June, Wood will travel to Mexico to conduct research on Mexican photojournalist Joaquín Santamaría and his nearly half-century of work photographing Veracruz and its inhabitants. In November, he will speak about Santamaría as part of a panel he organized on photography and history at the Historians of Mexico international conference in Austin, Texas.