Dr. Sarah Rodríguez
Sarah K.M. Rodríguez is assistant professor of history at Florida Gulf Coast University and an expert in North American borderlands, sovereignty, and comparative nation building. Her recently published book, One National Family: Texas, Mexico, and the Making of the Modern United States, 1821-1867 (Johns Hopkins University Press, 2024), reconsiders the causes and consequences of the United States’ dramatic rise to continental dominance at the midpoint of the nineteenth century. In addition to the Fulbright, her work has received support from the Huntington Library, the Smithsonian Institution, the Clements Center for Southwest Studies, and the McNeil Center for Early American Studies.
Rodríguez will use her time at Trent to pursue a second project that compares Canadian and Mexican reactions to US territorial expansion. She looks forward to benefitting from the expertise of her colleagues and students in Canadian Studies and from Trent's robust intellectual community.
In the summer S61 Session at Trent University, Prof. Rodríguez is teaching CAST-HIST-POST-4895H: Advanced topics in Canada / US relations: In 2026, this course will explore the history of the North American continent during what is commonly known as the “Age of Expansion.” Specifically, it will consider the origins, manifestations, and consequences of US territorial expansion during the “long” nineteenth century (1789-1917) with particular attention to how it impacted the rest of the continent and, conversely, how Mexican, Canadian, and Indigenous groups reacted to and shaped US expansion. The course will proceed chronologically as we consider the following questions: How inevitable was the United States’ rise to continental dominance? What actors and forces contributed to it? How did it shape the geopolitical dynamic of the North American continent as well as the internal politics of Canada, Mexico, and Native powers? Did the United States constitute an empire? If so, what kind? And how did it reconcile expansionist project with its attested commitment to liberty, equality, and self-determination? Finally, what is the legacy and consequences of this particular period of North American history?