Catherine Komisaruk

Catherine Komisaruk is an Associate Professor in the Department of History at the University of Texas at San Antonio (UTSA), part of the College of Liberal and Fine Arts. She has been affiliated with UTSA since 2015. Her research specializes in colonial-era Latin America, examining social dynamics through lenses of gender, labor, migration, and indigenous societies. She holds a Ph.D. and M.A. from UCLA and an A.B. Magna Cum Laude from Harvard University.

Her work explores themes like indigenous labor erosion, gendered migration patterns, legal transformations in family structures, and resistance in colonial contexts. Current projects include a book on native marriage and activism in colonial Mexico/Guatemala. Komisaruk is multilingual, fluent in English and Spanish with reading proficiency in Nahuatl, Portuguese, and Russian.

Research Grants:
• Gender, Migration, and Native Uprisings in New Spain (2018-2019; $50,400)
• The Indian Housewives of New Spain (2017-2018; $5,000)

Honors & Fellowships:

• American Philosophical Society Fellowship (2023)
• John Carter Brown Library Fellowship (2023)
• National Endowment for the Humanities Fellowship
• American Association of University Women Fellowship

She teaches courses including Historical Research Methods, History of Mexico, and Women in Mexican History, emphasizing archival analysis and social history methodologies.