A fellow's forum with Dr. Sandra Rebok from October 28, 2024.
About the Presentation
This book project seeks to illustrate the ways in which from the American Revolution onward the U.S. nation building process and the developments in the Spanish and later Mexican Southwest became increasingly entangled until the U.S. annexation of this region, following the Mexican-American War in 1848. It argues that from the 1780ies onwards Thomas Jefferson set the basis on which U.S. expansion into this region would take place over the next decades. It does so by analyzing Jefferson´s policy and strategies concerning the Southwest, with a focus on the ways his political pursuits were interconnected with his scientific concerns. Furthermore, the project explores how territorial ambitions were intertwined with both the pursuit of knowledge and the promotion of migratory processes in this area, over the given time span and their changing political identities.
About Sandra Rebok
Trained in Heidelberg, Paris and Madrid, Dr. Sandra Rebok has worked for over 16 years at the Spanish National Research Council and was a 3-year Marie Curie Fellow awarded by the European Commission at the Huntington Library in California. Her research and publication focus on 18th/19th century exploration voyages, science and imperial expansion and intellectual networks. She has over twenty years of experience in scholarship on Alexander von Humboldt, much of it focused on his connection to the United States and his ties to Thomas Jefferson. Currently she is working on her new book project analyzing Jefferson’s early interest for the Spanish and Mexican Southwest. In addition, she has a long experience in different forms of in science communication and has curated several exhibitions in the field of history of knowledge. During the years 2022-2024 she has been a Visiting Scholar at the Center for US-Mexican Studies, a think tank located at the University of California San Diego and, additionally, a research associate at the history department at the University of San Diego.