Max Deardorff

Max Deardorff is a historian and University Term Professor at the University of Florida's Department of History. As Graduate Coordinator, he oversees graduate programs and mentors students in colonial Latin American studies. He holds a Ph.D. from the University of Notre Dame (2015). His research focuses on early modern Iberian history, particularly the intersection of race, identity, religion, law, and indigenous ethnohistory within the Spanish Empire.

Deardorff's academic career includes fellowships at the Max Planck Institute for European Legal History (Frankfurt) and Fulbright Scholarships. His research has been supported by grants from the Mellon Foundation, Nanovic Institute, and Kellogg Institute. He lectures extensively across Colombia, Brazil, Peru, France, Germany, the Netherlands, and the U.S.

His first book, A Tale of Two Granadas (2023), explores Christian citizenship and frontier politics in Spain and colonial Colombia, earning the Bandelier/Lavrin and Alfred B. Thomas Book Awards. Notable articles include analyses of indigenous spirituality, Morisco-Old Christian intermarriage, and legal pluralism in the Crown of Castile.

Deardorff actively advises Ph.D. candidates interested in colonial Latin America, early modern Spain, or the Iberian Atlantic. He leads the Iberia Plus Ultra website, a digital hub for historical archives and research tools.