Mark Z. Christensen, Department of History
Mark Z. Christensen
Department of History
Phone: (508) 767-7269
Email: mz.christensen@assumption.edu
A.S., Utah Valley University; Political Science, 2002
B.A., Brigham Young University; History, 2003
M.A., University of Utah, History; History 2006
Ph.D., The Pennsylvania State University; History, 2010
Dissertation: “Nahua and Maya Catholicisms: Ecclesiastical Texts and Local Religion in Colonial Central Mexico and Yucatan”
Sample of Courses Taught: The West and the World: 1400-1800; The West and the World: 1800-Present; Colonial Latin America: 1400-1820s; The Shaping of Modern Latin America;2012: Mayas, Europeans, and the End of the World
Research Interests
- Religion in Colonial Latin America
- Nahua and Maya studies
- Nahuatl and Yucatec Maya colonial texts
Sample of Courses Taught:
- The West and the World I: The Atlantic World
- The West and the World II: Identity and Culture in a Global World
- Colonial Latin America: 1400s-1820s
- The Shaping of Modern Latin America
- 2012: Mayas, Europeans, and the End of the World
- Religion in Colonial Latin America
- From Sinners to Saints: Converting the Aztec and the Maya
- The Rise of Brazil: 1500-2016
Sample of Publications
- Nahua and Maya Catholicisms: Texts and Religion in Colonial Mexico (American Academy of Franciscan History and Stanford University Press, 2013)
- Translated Christianities: Nahuatl and Maya Religious Texts (Penn State University Press, forthcoming)
- “The Use of Nahuatl in Evangelization and the Ministry of Sebastian,” Ethnohistory 59, no. 4 (Fall, 2012), part of a special issue on “Nahuatl as a Lingua Franca”
- “The Tales of Two Cultures: Ecclesiastical Texts and Nahua and Maya Catholicisms,” The Americas 66, no. 3 (January 2010)
Sample of Presentations
- “2012 and the End of the World.” Assumption College, 2012
- “Signs of the Times: Nahuatl and Maya Religious Texts and the End of the World.” American Society for Ethnohistory, Springfield, 2012
- “Baptism in Huehuetlatolli.” Second Annual Conference of the Northeastern group of Nahuatl Studies, Yale University, 2012
- “Learning the Doctrine through Stories: Moralistic Tales in Colonial Maya.” Rocky Mountain Council for Latin American Studies, Park City, 2012
- “Maya Methodists.” American Historical Association, Chicago, 2012
- “Converting the Heathen through Proper Instruction.” American Society for Ethnohistory, Pasadena, 2011
- “The Spoils of the Pech Conquistadors.” Rocky Mountain Council for Latin American Studies, Santa Fe, 2011
- “One God, One Faith, One Baptism.” American Historical Association, Boston, 2011
- “Words of Devotion: The Use of Nahuatl in Evangelization.” XIII Reunión de Historiadores de México, Estados Unidos Y Canadá, Querétaro, Mexico, 2010
