Teaches Latin American and Mexican history, with particular interests in the juridical dimensions
of state formation and the intersection between legal and popular cultures in Mexico City in the
18th and 19th centuries.
Professor Scardaville teaches an introductory survey of Latin American history,
undergraduate courses on colonial Latin America and Mexico, a senior seminar on
Latin American relations with the United States, and graduate courses on various
aspects of Mexican and Latin American history. His most recent publications include
“Justice by Paperwork: A Day in the Life of a Court Scribe in Bourbon Mexico City,”
“Los procesos judiciales y la autoridad del Estado: reflexiones en torno a la
administración de la justicia criminal y la legitimidad en la ciudad de México,
desde finales de la Colonia, hasta principios del México independiente,”
and “Trabajadores, grupo doméstico y supervivencia durante el periodo colonial
tardío en la Ciudad de México, o ‘La familia pequeña no vive major.
Current Activities:
With support of a research fellowship from the National Endowment for the Humanities in 2003, I
am completing a book on “The Restrained Leviathan: Public Order and the Judicial State in Mexico
City, 1737-1836,” which explores the role that criminal law played in state formation in the Mexican
capital from the late colonial to the early national periods.
