Michael M Brescia

Interests

Teaching

Mexico, Spanish and Mexican Borderlands, Comparative North America, World History

Research

Colonial Mexico, paleography and translation, early modern print culture and libraries, Nineteenth-Century Mexico and the Borderlands, Southwest, living legacies of Spanish and Mexican natural resource law, water rights

Courses

Scholarly Contributions

Journals/Publications

• Brescia, M. M. (2022). "The Long View of Arizona History". The Smoke Signal, 110/111, 1-60.
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  Guest Editor of a Special Issue of The Smoke Signal, a publication of the Tucson Corral of the Westerners.
• Brescia, M. M. (2020). "Libraries at the Intersection of "Las Dos Majestades" in Colonial Mexico: The Biblioteca Palafoxiana as Emblem of Change and Continuity from Habsburg to Bourbon Rule.". Bulletin for Spanish and Portuguese Historical Studies, 45(1), 17-46.
• Brescia, M. M. (2020). “El régimen del derecho antiguo mexicano en Estados Unidos: El relato del billonario, los surfistas y el conflicto entre la propiedad privada y el acceso público a la playa.” (The Old Mexican Law Regimen in the United States: The Story of the Billionaire, Surfers, and the Conflict between Private Property and Public Beach Access). Themis: Órgano de Divulgación Jurídica, 2(12), 21-26.
• Brescia, M. M. (2015). The Spanish Element in Western Water Law: Views from Arizona. Western Legal History, 28(1), 81-121.
• Brescia, M. M. (2016). Natural Resources and the Law in Hispanic Arizona: The Babocomari Ranch and the Living Legacies of the Gadsden Purchase. Journal of the Southwest, 58(1), 29-52.
• Brescia, M. M. (2015). Agrarian Lifeways and Judicial Transitions for Hispanic Families in Anglo California: Sources for Legal History in the Autry National Center of the American West. California Legal History, 10, 387-405.
• Brescia, M. M. (2015). Bridging Troubled Waters: Historians, Natural Resources, and the Expert Witness Phenomenon. The Public Historian, 37(1), 11-24.
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  My scholarly contribution as guest editor of a special issue of the journal on the theme of historian as expert witness.
• Brescia, M. M. (2015). Guest Editor of the Special Issue, "The Historian as Expert Witness". The Public Historian, 37(1).
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  I served as guest editor of a special issue of the journal, The Public Historian. The title of this special issue is "The Historian as Expert Witness."
• BRESCIA, M. M. (2007). The Museum of Spanish Colonial Art. WILLIAM FIELD, executive director; ROBIN FARWELL GAVIN, chief curator; PATRICIA PRICE, curator of education; http://www.spanishcolonial.org/. The Public Historian. doi:10.1525/tph.2007.29.4.96
• Brescia, M. M., & Petras, J. (2000). The FARC Faces the Empire. Latin American Perspectives, 27(5), 134-142. doi:10.1177/0094582x0002700508

Presentations

• Brescia, M. M. (2016, January). Teaching and Researching Mexican History in Light of the ASM Library & Archives. Annual Arizona Archives Summit. Tempe, Arizona: Arizona Archives Alliance.
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  Scholarly paper given at the annual Arizona Archives Summit on the panel "Users Talk Back: How Researchers Find and Use the ASM Library & Archives," organized by Mary Graham and Jannelle Weakly.
• Brescia, M. M. (2016, March). Careers in Museums for the Historian. UA History Graduate Student Association (HGA) Symposium. Tucson, Arizona: Department of History, University of Arizona.
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  Paper presented at the History Graduate Association Symposium on Careers in History.
• Brescia, M. M. (2015, July). "Water, Land, and Lawyers in Hispanic California: Natural Resources at the Intersection of Spanish Colonialism and American Rule.". Research Frontiers Symposium, Autry National Center of the American West, Los Angeles, California. Los Angeles, California: Autry National Center of the American West.
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  scholarly presentation as part of my research fellowship

Reviews

• Brescia, M. M. (2022. Cultura entre la muchedumbre y el rincón solitario: Hacia una aproximación integradora de lo efímero. (Culture between the Crowd and the Secluded Corner: Toward an Integrative Approach to the Ephemeral)(pp 12, no. 23: 5-8). San Luis Potosi, Mexico.
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  Review Essay
• Brescia, M. M. (2016. Book Review, Four Square Leagues: Pueblo Indian Land in New Mexico.
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  book review

Creative Productions

• Brescia, M. M. (2023. "Collecting and Preserving Colonial Latin American Materials Today: A Roundtable.". The Papers of the Bibliographical Society of America. New York: The Bibliographical Society of America. https://www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/10.1086/724801
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  English translation of a roundtable conducted in Spanish, edited by Alex Hidalgo and Corinna Zeltsman, and sponsored by the Bibliographical Society of America.
• Brescia, M. M. (2021. New World's Rome: Mexico City in the Age of Sor Juana. Translation, published by UNAM San Antonio. San Antonio TX: UNAM San Antonio. https://www.amazon.com/NEW-WORLDS-ROME-Mexico-Juana/dp/B09LZX6W2Y/ref=sr_1_2?keywords=Brescia+Michael+M.&qid=1637468648&sr=8-2
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  English translation of Antonio Rubial Garcia's book on daily life in seventeenth-century Mexico City.
• Brescia, M. M. (2020. Many Mexicos: Vistas de la Frontera – A Retrospective View (2010-2020). Online museum exhibit. Tucson: Arizona State Museum / University of Arizona. https://statemuseum.arizona.edu/online-exhibit/many-mexicos
• Brescia, M. M. (2019. "Race and Social Class in Colonial Mexico". Sorting Out Race exhibit. Tucson: Arizona State Museum.
• Brescia, M. M. (2019. "The Castas Painting and Legacies of Race and Class in Mexico.". Exhibit. Tucson: Arizona State Museum.
• Brescia, M. M. (2019. Image of the Casta Painting with Description. Exhibit. Tucson: Arizona State Museum.
• Brescia, M. M. (2018. "De los montes y plantios (On the Woods and Fields)". Exhibit, Law and Continuity in Early Independent Mexico: Juan N. Rodriguez and the Pandectas hispano-megicanas.. Tucson: Special Collections, Daniel F. Cracchiolo Law Library, James E. Rogers College of Law, University of Arizona.
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  Sub-Text panel for a single case exhibit (2'4" x 4'10" x 4'8").
• Brescia, M. M. (2018. "Juan N. Rodriguez de San Miguel and the Pandectas hispano-megicanas.". Exhibit, Law and Continuity in Early Independent Mexico. Tucson: Special Collections, Daniel F. Cracchiolo Law Library, James E. Rogers College of Law, University of Arizona.
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  Text panel for a single case exhibit (2'4" x 4'10" x 4'8") with two objects examining continuity in Mexican law after independence from Spain via a rare book in the law library's special collections.
• Brescia, M. M. (2015. Lead Curator, Intimacy of Faith: Devotional Retablos and Ex-Votos from Mexico.. Museum Exhibit. Tucson, Arizona: Arizona State Museum.
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  Lead curator of the exhibit; responsible for conceptual framework of the exhibit; responsible for 25% of intellectual content; responsible for editing and revising 100% of content. Post-installation peer review appeared in the following venues:1) Yolanda Chavez Leyva, 2015, The Public Historian 37(4): 149-153.2) Margaret Regan, Tucson Weekly, 2015, online access available at http://www.tucsonweekly.com/tucson/faith-and-folklore/Content?oid=5068396.3) Emily Umberger, 2016, Visual Anthropology Review 32(1): 94-96.

Others

• Brescia, M. M. (2019, June). Final Report to AHRAB for Learning to Dig Project.
• Brescia, M. M. (2018, June). Final Report to AHRAB for the Polzer Papers Project.
• Brescia, M. M. (2016, December). The Black Death and Later Plague Epidemics in the Nordic Countries. De Gruyter Publishers.
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  I am the Language Editor of this book written by Ole Jorgen Benedictow and published by De Gruyter Publishers, headquartered in Warsaw, Poland. I edited the 400-page manuscript, which was written in English by a non-native English speaking scholar. The book is an ethnohistorical assessment of disease and demography in the Nordic Countries in light of the devastation caused by the plague or Black Death.
• Brescia, M. M. (2015, April). Text panel, Baroque Catholicism in Mexico, for the Intimacy of Faith Exhibit. Arizona State Museum.
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  Author of the text panel, Baroque Catholicism in Mexico, for the Intimacy of Faith exhibit at ASM.