Emilio Kourí

Emilio Kourí is Professor of History and the College at the University of Chicago, where he specializes in the history of rural Mexico since Independence. He serves as Director of the Katz Center for Mexican Studies and is affiliated with the Center for Latin American Studies and the Center for the Study of Race, Politics, and Culture.

• PhD from Harvard University (1996)

Research Focus: Agrarian studies, social and economic history of Latin America, indigenous societies, rural ecology, political economy, and the social history of law. His scholarship examines communal landholding in Mexico, challenging prevailing narratives about the Zapatista movement and the ejido system created by the Mexican Revolution.

Publications: His acclaimed book A Pueblo Divided (2004) investigates agrarian transformation in 19th-century Papantla. Current projects include a three-volume history analyzing the evolution of communal land tenure, Zapatista agrarian practices, and the ideological origins of the ejido system.

Awards:

• Bolton-Johnson Prize (2005)
• Erminie Wheeler-Voegelin Prize Honorable Mention (2005)

Teaching: Courses on land reforms, rural ecologies, social movements, agrarian thought, and Latin American/Latino/a history. He advised curators for the University of Chicago's "Researching Mexico" exhibit.