Dominique Polanco

Dominique Polanco’s research focuses on the history of production and collection of Indigenous amoxtli (books) from colonial Mexico. Specifically, she specializes in painted documents by Nahua tlacuiloque (artist-scribes) in the sixteenth century. Her work incorporates the fields of art history, Indigenous studies, ethnohistory, Latin American studies, and book studies. 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 (commonly known as the Codex Osuna) between two continents over more than four hundred. Dr. Polanco applies a critical bibliographical approach to understanding how the Pintura has been recolonized over centuries for different national agendas.

Dr. Polanco also focuses on Indigenous materiality in the early modern period. Along with Nicholas R. Jones and Christina H. Lee, Dr. Polanco is co-editor of The Routledge Companion to Race in Early Modern Artistic, Material, and Visual Production (forthcoming).

Dr. Polanco earned her doctorate in Art History from the University of Arizona, her master’s degree in the History of Art from the University of California, Riverside, and her bachelor’s degree in English and World Literature from Pitzer College. Her research has been supported by numerous fellowships and institutions, most recently by the Bibliographical Society of America-Pine Tree Foundation of New York and the Society for the History of Authorship, Reading, and Publishing. For the 2024-2025 academic year, she is a Barbara Thom Postdoctoral Fellow at the Huntington Library in San Marino, California.