Dr Thom Rath

Associate Professor in the History of Modern Latin America

a man in the countryside

Thom’s research traverses political, social, military and environmental history and aims to highlight Latin America’s connections to big global processes. He wrote the award-winning The Dread Plague and the Cow Killers: The Politics of Animal Disease in Mexico and the World (Cambridge University Press, 2022). This book examines how a huge international campaign against animal disease reshaped Mexican politics, society, science and the wider world. Before that, he wrote a book about the military and Mexico’s postrevolutionary state, which explored violence, popular protest, and memory.  Thom is developing further research on animals and projects of development and modernization in Latin America and beyond, and continues to work on traditions of military policing in Mexico.

Thom also co-edits the Journal of Latin American Studies, co-convenes the IHR Latin American history seminar, and organizes the ‘Latin American in the World’ reading group. He was an undergraduate at UCL History, did an MPhil in Latin American Studies at Oxford, and then went to Columbia for a PhD. 

PhD supervision

Thom welcomes applications from students whose research overlaps with his thematic interests. Please get in touch at the start of the academic year in which you wish to apply. 
 
Thom currently supervises Francesca Edgerton (exiles and the Mexican Revolution; LAHP funded) and co-supervises Haiyun Liu (China and Porfirian Mexico; GBCET funded); he second-supervises José Manuel Castro (Intellectuals in Cold War Chile; Becas Chile), and Benjamín Concha (Concepts of Democracy in Chile; LAHP funded). 

Major publications

  • Rath, T. (with N. Morris, I. Olivo, B. Smith) (2026) ‘Monte de Chila y las masacres olvidadas en México.’ Historia Mexicana (forthcoming).
  • Rath, T. (2024) ‘Radiating South: Atomic Agriculture, US-Mexico Relations, and the Screwworm’, Agricultural History.
  • Rath, T. (2022) The Dread Plague and the Cow Killers: The Politics of Animal Disease in Mexico and the World
  • Rath, T. (2020) ‘Burning the Archive, Building the State? Politics, Paper, and US Power in Postwar Mexico’, Journal of Contemporary History.
  • Rath, T. (2020). ‘A Tale of Four Laboratories: Politics, Science and Animal Disease in Cold War Latin America’. In A. Chastain, T. Lorek (Eds.), Itineraries of Expertise: Science, Technology, and the Environment in Latin America’s Long Cold War. Pittsburgh: University of Pittsburgh Press.
  • Rath, T. (2018) ‘Modernizing Military Patriarchy: Gender and State Building in Postrevolutionary Mexico, 1920-1960’, Journal of Social History, Volume 52, Issue 3, Spring 2019, 807–830.
  • Rath, T. (2014) ‘Camouflaging the state: the army and the limits of hegemony in priísta Mexico, 1940-1960’. In: Gillingham, P. and Smith, B.T. (eds) Dictablanda: Politics, Work and Culture in Mexico, 1938-1968 (pp.89-107). Raleigh: Duke University Press.
  • Rath, T. (2013) Myths of Demilitarization in Postrevolutionary Mexico, 1920-1960. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press. 

For a full list of publications, see Thom’s Iris profile.

Grants/projects

Thom’s project on animal disease received support from the Wellcome Trust. He also sponsored the Leverhulme Early Career Fellowship of Dr. Nathaniel Morris, and the British Academy Visiting Fellowship of Dr. Gema Kloppe-Santamaria. He received funding from UCL Knowledge Exchange for the project “Digital Technologies and Atrocities: Promoting Truth and Accountability in Mexico.” 

Media appearances

Thom has contributed commentary to the BBC World Service, Sky News, Berfrois magazine and the Financial Times, among other outlets.

Teaching

  • History and Nature in Modern Latin America (advanced seminar)
  • History, Memory and Democracy in Contemporary Latin America (second-year thematic module)
  • Animals in Latin American History (second-year research seminar)
  • Animals and Modernity, 1750-present (MA module)
  • The Perfect Dictatorship? Governing Modern Mexico (special subject)
  • History of Latin America, c.1830-1930 (first- and second-year survey course)

Contact information

Email: t.rath@ucl.ac.uk

Office: 401, 23 Gordon Square

Student support & feedback hours: Wednesday 1-2 PM, online via Teams, book here. Thursdays 2-3 PM, in person, book here. 

Please note that my office is up 4/5 flights of stairs. Students with specific access requirements should please email me to arrange an alternative. 

Student support & feedback hours are an opportunity for students to chat with their module tutors about their ideas, any support they might need with the module, and to go through feedback from their assessments.  

Departmental roles

  • Widening Participation Officer, 2025-6

External roles

  • Editor, Journal of Latin American Studies
  • External Examiner, Latin American Centre, University of Oxford
  • Convenor, IHR Latin American History Seminar

Qualifications

PhD Columbia