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Charles Cutter
Associate Professor, Department of History
Office: UNIV 307
Office Phone: (765) 494-4804
Office Fax: (765) 496-1755
Email: cutter@purdue.edu
Specialization: Latin American; Latin American history and the Spanish Southwest.
A native of the U.S. Southwest, I grew up and attended schools in Los Angeles, Albuquerque, Mexico City, and Madrid. After a stint as a professional musician, I began my graduate studies at the University of New Mexico, where I studied with Peter Bakewell and John Kessell, among others, and received my Ph.D. degree in 1989. Several themes have guided my research over the past decade and a half: the relationship of native peoples to the wider Hispanic community and the Spanish colonial state, the role of the colonial legal system as mediator between the diverse groups who comprised colonial society, and the ways in which individuals confront and make sense of moments of great social and political upheaval. The examination of these themes has led to a number of books, book chapters, and articles, including The Protector de Indios in Colonial New Mexico, 1659-1821 (1986), and The Legal Culture of Northern New Spain, 1700-1810 (1995). At present I am completing a biography of Ignacio de Zubía, an eighteenth-century cleric who lived in Mexico City.
Undergraduate Courses: Latin America to 1824 (HIST 271), Hispanic Heritage of the United States (HIST 366), History of Spain and Portugal (HIST 427), History of Mexico (HIST 472), The Spanish Frontier in North America (HIST 475).
Graduate Courses: I teach a variety of graduate courses that focus on Colonial Latin America (listed under HIST 576, 577, and 670). Some recent courses include “Church and Society in Colonial Latin America,” “The Social Construction of Colonial Latin America,” “Spain and the New World, 1500-1800,” and “Race, Class, and Gender in Colonial Spanish America.” In Fall 2002, I offered a readings seminar entitled “Subjects at the Margins in Colonial Spanish America.”
