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About Me

Elaine Carey is Professor of History and Dean of the College of  Arts and Sciences at Oakland University in Rochester, MI. She is the author of Plaza of Sacrifices: Gender, Power, and Terror in 1968 Mexico (2005) and the award-winning Women Drug Traffickers: Mules, Bosses, and Organized Crime (2014). She is also co-editor with Andrae Marak of Smugglers, Brothels, and Twine: Transnational Flows of Contraband and Vice in North America (2011) and the editor/author of the textbook Protests in the Streets: 1968 Across the Globe (2016).

As a historian who researches crime and human rights, she has served as an expert witness in courts across the United States, and she has consulted for radio, film, television, archives, libraries, and museums.   She is a recipient of numerous grants including funding from Fulbright–García Robles, National Endowment for the Humanities, National History Center, Library of Congress, and the Teagle Foundation. From 2013-2016, she was the Vice President for the Teaching Division of the American Historical Association (AHA).

Recent Publications

Select Publications:

Refereed Books

Protests in the Streets: 1968 Across the Globe, part of the Connections: Key Themes in World History. Cambridge: Hackett Publishing, 2016

Women Drug Traffickers: Mules, Bosses, and Organized Crime, Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, 2014. Honorable Mention, Rocky Mountain Latin American Studies Thomas McGann Award for best book on Latin American Studies for 2014; Nominated for the best book of 2015, International Association for the Study of Organized Crime; 2015 Latin American Studies Best Seller, Library Journal; Choice, Outstanding Academic Title for 2015.

 Smugglers, Brothels, and Twine: Historical Perspectives on Contraband and Vice in North America’s Borderlands, co-edited book with Andrae Marak. Tucson: University of Arizona Press, 2011.

 Plaza of Sacrifices: Gender, Power, and Terror in 1968 Mexico. Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, 2005.

Articles in Scholarly Edited Volumes

“Creating False Analogies: Race and Drug Wars 1930s to 1960s ,” for Race and Transnationalism in the Americas, edited by David Sherin and Ben Bryce, University of Pittsburgh Press, 2021.

“A History of Mexican Organized Crime” in Organized Crime: Causes and Consequences, edited by Robert Lombardo. Wheeling, IL: Novo Publishing, 2019.

With Andrae Marak, “’Aliens Addicting Us’: A Historical Perspective​ Immigration and Drug Control Policy,” The Routledge Handbook of Immigration and Crime edited by Holly Ventura Miller and Anthony Peguero . New York: Routledge, 2018.

With Andrae Marak, “Drug Smuggling and Automated Borders: A Losing Battle of Escalation or State/Non-state Symbiosis,” in Ryan Kiggin (eds) The Political Economy of Robots. International Political Economy Series. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2017

With James Grossman, ”An Undisciplined Report on Teaching of History,” in The History Student’s Handbook with Workbook, by Wendy Pokmann, Karen Mahar, Barbara Reeves-Ellington. New York: Oxford University Press, 2015.

“La práctica de historia: La carrera de Enrique Semo Calev Or The Historian’s Craft: The Career of Enrique Semo Calev,” in Homenaje a Enrique Semo, edited by Gloria Pedrero Nieto and Graciela Isabel Badía Muñoz. Toluca: Universidad Autónoma de Estado de México, 2014: 147-154.

Transcending Violence: A Crisis of Memory and Documentation,” in Challenging Authoritarianism in Mexico: Revolutionary Struggles and the “Dirty War,” edited by Fernando Calderon and Adela Cedillo. New York: Routledge, 2012: 198-210.

Peer-Reviewed Articles

“A Woman Formed the First Cartel? Historical Imaginations and Realities of the US-Mexico Drug War,” Society for the History of Alcohol and Drugs, Volume 31 (2017): 25-41.

With Ray Pun, “Collaboratively Teaching and Doing History: Promoting Historical Research in the 21^st Century, Special Issue on Motivating Millennials, Journal on Excellence in College Teaching, (September 2016).

 

 

Media Coverage

The Atlantic Monthly, Chicago Tribune, History New Network, Indiana Times, Inside Higher Education, Pensacola News Journal, Proceso, Milenio, and WJOB..

Social Media

Country Focus

Mexico and U.S.-Mexico borderlands

Expertise by Geography

Latin America

Expertise by Chronology

20th century, 21st century

Expertise by Topic

Gender, Higher Ed, Human Rights, Migration & Immigration, Public History, Sexuality, Women