Dr Caroline Cunill

Caroline Cunill received her Ph. D. in Latin American History. She is currently Maîtresse de Conférences at the l’Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales, Paris. Her research intertwines the institutional and social history of the Advocates of the Indians and the Interpreters of autochthonous languages in the Spanish Empire. She also examines the complex ways in which Indigenous peoples participated in the making of colonial legal culture, especially through the use they made of the courts of justice in New Spain, Mexico. Besides her monograph Los Defensores de Indios de Yucatán y el acceso de los mayas a la justicia colonial (2012), she co-edited Las lenguas indígenas en los tribunales de América Latina: intérpretes, mediación y justicia (2019) and Actores, redes y prácticas dialógicas en la construcción y uso de los archivos en América Latina (2021). In the course of her research, she was granted scholarships the Max Planck Institute for European Legal Studies and she held a postdoctoral position at the Instituto de Investigaciones Históricas (UNAM). She has also published articles in Historia Mexicana, Colonial Latin American Historical Review, and Journal de la Société des Américanistes. She is currently writing a new book project in which she analyzes two petitions to King Philip II written by Maya governors in their own language. Among other aspects, the book aims at highlighting the political dimension that translation from Maya to Castilian had in an imperial setting.