Brian DeLay

Brian DeLay is a Professor and the Preston Hotchkis Chair in the History of the United States at the University of California, Berkeley. His work centers on 18^th- and 19^th-century North America, with a focus on transnational, borderlands, and Native American histories. He examines power dynamics and inequality through the lens of Indigenous, U.S., and Latin American interactions, particularly during the U.S.-Mexican War era.

• Education:
  • BA, University of Colorado, Boulder (1994)
  • MA, Harvard University (1998)
  • PhD, Harvard University (2004)

Research Interests span the Age of Revolutions, U.S. Empire, Indigenous History, American West, and International Arms Trade. His scholarship highlights the role of Indigenous polities in shaping hemispheric power structures and critiques modern gun-policy myths through historical frameworks.

Grants & Fellowships include Guggenheim (2019-2020), Stanford Humanities Center (2019-2020), and ACLS (2017-2018). He serves as a scientific advisor in gun-safety litigation and co-directs Berkeley West, a dissertation group for North American West history.

Scientific Awards include the Vandervort Prize (2024), Bryce Wood Book Award (2010), and W. Turrentine Jackson Prize (2009). His first book, War of a Thousand Deserts, won multiple accolades, including the James Broussard Best First Book Prize (2008).