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Dominique Polanco

Dominique E. Polanco, Assistant Professor

Dominique E. Polanco, Assistant Professor
Dominique E. Polanco, Assistant Professor

Department of  Religion and Culture
109 Major Williams
Blacksburg, VA 24061
540-231-6101 | depolanco@vt.edu

Dominique Polanco’s research focuses on the history of production and collection of Indigenous manuscripts from colonial Mexico. Specifically, she specializes in painted documents by Nahua tlacuiloque (artist-scribes) in the sixteenth century. Her work incorporates decolonial theory, Mesoamerican codicology, Indigenous recordkeeping, and colonial collecting. She is currently at work on her first book manuscript that analyzes the creation, collection, and reproduction of the Pintura del gobernador, alcaldes, regidores de México (popularly known as the Codex Osuna) in Mexico, Spain, and the United States. Dr. Polanco applies a critical bibliographical approach to understanding how the Pintura has been recolonized over centuries for different national agendas.

Along with Nicholas R. Jones and Christina H. Lee, Dr. Polanco is co-editor of the Routledge Companion to Race in the Early Modern Artistic, Material, and Visual Production. Dr. Polanco uplifts the voices of BIPOC scholars, students, and community members through her teaching, research, and writing.

  • Colonial Latin American Art History
  • Mexican Art & Culture
  • Indigenous Latin American Art, Religion, & Culture
  • Indigenous Materiality
  • History of the Book, Libraries, & Archives
  • Ph.D., Art History, The University of Arizona
  • M.A., Art History, University of California, Riverside
  • B.A., English & World Literature, Pitzer College
  • College Art Association (CAA)
  • Association for Latin American Art (ALAA)
  • The American Society for Ethnohistory
  • The Bibliographical Society of America (BSA)
  • Society for the History of Authorship, Reading, and Publishing (SHARP)
  • Latin American Studies Association
  • Center for Humanities Research Associate, Center for the Humanities, VT
  • Medici Scholar Award, College of Fine Arts, The University of Arizona
  • Jane Welch Williams Annual Award for Graduate Research in Art History, The University of Arizona

Journal Articles

“Renaming the Cuicatec Knowledge in the Codex Porfirio Díaz: Decolonizing Mesoamerican Manuscript Facsimiles with Insurgent Research,” Latin American and Latinx Visual Culture (2023) 5 (4): 90-100. https://doi.org/10.1525/lavc.2023.5.4.90

  • BSA-Pine Tree Foundation Fellowship in Hispanic Bibliography
  • SHARP Research Development Grants for BIPOC Scholars
  • Newberry Library Scholar-in-Residence
  • International Performance and Presentation Grant, CLAHS, VT
  • Niles Research Grant, CLAHS, VT
  • New Faculty Mentoring Grant, The Office of the Provost, VT
  • Faculty Writing Group Grant, The Office of the Executive Vice President and Provost, VT
  • Rare Book School’s Discretionary Directors' Scholarship
  • Newberry Library Center for Renaissance Studies Consortium Graduate Student Fellowship
  • Andrew W. Mellon Summer Institute in Spanish Paleography
  • Foreign Language and Area Studies Fellowship, Center for Latin American Studies, The University of Arizona, Yale University Nahuatl Summer Program, Instituto de Docencia e Investigación Etnológica de Zacatecas (IDIEZ) Tinker Graduate Student Field Research Grant, Center for Latin American Studies, The University of Arizona

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