Staff at the Katz Center
Emilio Kourí
Katz Center Director and Professor of History, Romance Languages and Literatures, and the College
Emilio Kourí’s main scholarly interest is in the social and economic history of rural Mexico since Independence. He is the author of A Pueblo Divided: Business, Property, and Community in Papantla, Mexico. His current research focuses on the idea of the “Indian pueblo” in nineteenth and twentieth-century Mexican thought, law, and political discourse. He is also writing a book on the making of the ejido, Mexico’s sui generis postrevolutionary land reform institution. In addition to functioning as Director of the Katz Center for Mexican Studies, Professor Kourí teaches seminars on land reforms, rural social movements, and the history of agrarian thought in the Department of History.
MAURICIO TENORIO
Professor of History, Romance Languages and Literatures, and the College; Profesor Asociado, Centro de Investigación y Docencia Económicas (CIDE)
Mauricio Tenorio’s main scholarly interest is in the political and cultural histories of Mexico and Latin America of the 19th and 20th centuries. His most recent book, La paz. 1876, was published in 2018 by the Fondo de Cultura Económica.
Alberto Ortega Trejo
Program Manager
Alberto Ortega Trejo is an artist and architectural researcher. He is a Lecturer at the Art History Department of the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and contributes with planning and design for seminars and lectures at the Katz Center.
CLAUDIA BRITTENHAM
Associate Professor of Art History and the College (on research leave, 2018-2019)
Art of ancient Mexico, Guatemala, and Honduras, with a special interest in issues of art and identity, intercultural interaction, the materiality of art, and the politics of style. Current research project examines problems of visibility and the status of images in Mesoamerica. Formerly Assistant Curator for Eastern Hemisphere Collections at the Textile Museum in Washington, D.C.