Dr. Jorge Puma started as an assistant professor at Hope College in August 2023. He teaches introductory courses on the history of the Modern World and Latin American History, covering both the colonial and modern periods. His lectures combine insights from transnational history with case studies from national spheres. Using movies, graphic novels, and primary sources, Dr. Puma invites his students to explore the history of an interconnected world from new perspectives.

Dr. Puma holds a Ph.D. in history from the University of Notre Dame and the University of Paris-Saclay. He was a 2022 Chateaubriand Fellow in Humanities and Social Sciences and a 2017 Fulbright-García Robles alumnus. His dissertation analyzes the links between French radicalism, post-Vatican II Catholic activism, and Mexican protest movements, focusing on the Mexican Maoist group People's Politics (Política Popular) and its relationship with left-wing priest movements of the 1970s. In June 2024, his dissertation won the Best Dissertation Award from the Mexican Section of the Latin American Studies Association.

Dr. Puma has published his work in peer-reviewed journals in Chile and the United States. His latest work, on progressive Catholicism in 1970s Mexico, appeared in the March 2022 issue of The Americas. You can read the article here.

Areas of Expertise

• twentieth century Latin American history
• Mexican history
• transnational history of the left
• catholic history
• global sixties

Education

• Ph. D., Latin American history, University of Notre Dame, 2023
• Ph. D., History, Université Paris-Saclay, 2023
• M.A., international history, Centro de Investigación y Docencia Económicas (CIDE), 2014
• B.A., political science and international relations, CIDE, 2008
• B.A., law, Universidad Pontificia de Mexico, 2005

Selected Grants & Awards

• Best Dissertation Award, Mexican Section of the Latin American Studies Association (LASA), 2024
• Phillip Gleason Writing Prize for the article “The Nazas-Aguanaval Group: Radical Priests, Catholic Networks, and Maoist Politics in Northern Mexico,” Department of History, University of Notre Dame, 2023
• Honorable Mention for Ph.D. Dissertation in the “Charles A. Hale Fellowship for Mexican History,” Latin American Studies Association (LASA), 2023
• The Chateaubriand Fellowship in Humanities and Social Sciences (HSS), Embassy of France in the United States, 2022
• Summer Research and Writing Grant, American Catholic Historical Association (ACHA), 2022
• Award for Historical Research Dissertation Projects for “The Transnational History of Política Popular, 1968-1979,” National Institute for Historical Studies of Mexico's Revolutions (INEHRM), 2021
• Scholarship Program for Researchers on China, Center for Chinese-Mexican Studies, UNAM Economics Department, 2021

Selected Publications

• "The Nazas-Aguanaval Group: Radical Priests, Catholic Networks, and Maoist Politics in Northern Mexico," The Americas, 79(2), 291-320, 2022
• "https://law-journals-books.vlex.com/vid/small-groups-dont-win-875462471," Latin American Perspectives, 44(6), 140-155, 2017
• "Maoists of Northern Mexico: A Short History of Política Popular-Línea Proletaria, 1969-1979," Revista Izquierdas (27), Santiago de Chile, Chile: Instituto de Estudios Avanzados de la Universidad de Santiago de Chile, 200-229, 2016
• Fuentes Castillo, Ricardo Yanuel, and Jorge Iván Puma Crespo. "Queremos que el pueblo haga su política y nosotros hacerla con él. Una historia de la organización maoísta Política Popular (1968-1979)." In Senderos de lucha: Las izquierdas mexicanas durante la época de la Guerra Fría, edited by Irving Reynoso Jaime and Uriel Velázquez Vidal. Cuernavaca: Universidad Autónoma del Estado de Morelos, 2023
• "Armed Struggle in the Memories of the Maoists of 'Política Popular,'" In F. Campos Hernández, Y. Escamilla Santiago, R. Gamiño Muñoz, & R. Reyes Sánchez (Eds.), Cartographies of Terror: Memory and Violence in Latin America (pp. 383-414). Guadalajara, México: Taller Editorial Casa del Mago, 2016

Outside the college

When not teaching, Dr. Puma does political commentary for Mexican media.