Chase Caldwell Smith
Chase Caldwell Smith
PhD Student & Teaching Associate in History
Email: chasesmith@ucla.edu
Office: Bunche Hall 2113
Phone: 14752580051
Personal WebsiteBiography
Chase is a historian of religious knowledge encounters between European missionaries and Nahua peoples in central Mexico. Using textual, visual, and material evidence, Chase explores why and how the making, breaking, and debating of “sacred matter” was a major concern in the construction and negotiation of colonial society between the early sixteenth and late seventeenth centuries. Drawing on sources in Spanish, Nahuatl, Portuguese, and Latin, Chase’s dissertation sits at the crossroads of colonial Latin American history, ethnohistory, Ibero-American art history, and studies of global early modern Catholicism. His broader interests concern religion in the early modern Iberian empires, knowledges produced in missionary encounters, and the “hybrid” people, images, and objects created in contexts of early modern colonial encounter in colonial Latin America and Iberian Asia.
Chase holds a BA in History from Cambridge (double first class honors), an MSt in Global and Imperial History from Oxford (distinction), and an MA in History from UCLA. He has held fellowships and grants from the UCLA Center for Medieval and Renaissance Studies, the UCLA History Department, the UCLA Latin American Institute, Dumbarton Oaks, the California Rare Books School, the Clarendon Fund at the University of Oxford, and the Conference on Latin American History. He has taught on colonial Latin American History, modern Western civilization, medieval and early modern world history, and the early modern history of science.
Beyond his studies, Chase has worked as producer and presenter for the Global History Podcast, a digital humanities project dedicated to sharing global approaches to early modern history. He has co-organized conferences and museum tours as an officer of the UCLA Medieval and Early Modern Students Association, and worked as Graduate Coordinator of the cross-area studies UCLA Pacific World Research Network. He is a candidate for the Certificate in Early Modern Studies and the Certificate in Digital Humanities at UCLA.
Subfield
colonial New Spain; early modern global Spanish and Portuguese empires; colonial Latin American art history; Nahuatl colonial literature; missionary translation; early modern global Catholicism
Research
Master’s Dissertation: ‘“Orientalism from Within”? Gender, Self-Fashioning, and Knowledge in the Works of Manuel Godinho de Erédia, c. 1558–1623’
Undergraduate Dissertation: ‘The Representation of Sacred Places in the relaciones geográficas of New Spain, 1577 – 1586’
Publications
Rees, P.C. and Smith, C.C., ‘Conference Report: BSHS Postgraduate Conference’, Viewpoint: Magazine of the British Society for the History of Science, 116 (2018), [http://www.bshs.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/Viewpoint116_ONLINE.pdf], pp. 12-13.
Smith, C.C., ‘Review: Geographies of World History Graduate Conference: University of Cambridge, September 2017’, Global Histories: A Student Journal, 4/1 (2018), [https://www.globalhistories.com/index.php/GHSJ/article/view/173/101], pp. 207-10.
Awards & Grants
Research Grants and Fellowships
2020-26 Six-Year Funding Package, Department of History, UCLA
2023 The James R. Scobie Award, The Conference on Latin American History
2023 Summer Mentorship, Graduate Certificate Program in Early Modern Studies, UCLA Center for 17th- and 18th-Century Studies
2023 2023 Research Travel Award, UCLA History Department
2022 LAI Graduate Student Summer 2022 Research Grant, Latin American Institute, UCLA
2021, 2022 Fellowship, Graduate Summer Research Mentorship Program, Graduate Division, UCLA (declined)
2017-18 Clarendon Fund Scholarship, University of Oxford
2016 Award, Michelle Ong Travel Fund, Faculty of History, University of Cambridge (declined)
2016 Grant, Tutors’ Donation Fund, Gonville & Caius College, University of Cambridge
Language Training
2023-2024 Foreign Language and Area Studies (FLAS) Fellowship Award, Academic Year 2023-2024 (Nahuatl), Latin American Institute, UCLA
2022-23 FLAS Fellowship Award, Academic Year 2022-2023 (Indonesian), Center for Southeast Asian Studies (CSEAS), UCLA
2022 FLAS Fellowship Award, Summer 2022 (Indonesian), CSEAS, UCLA
2021-22 FLAS Fellowship Award, Academic Year 2021-2022 (Indonesian), CSEAS, UCLA
2021 Indonesian Studies Small Grant (Indonesian), CSEAS, UCLA
2021 Tuition Scholarship (Indonesian), Southeast Asian Studies Summer Institute, University of Wisconsin–Madison
2021 Research & Study Travel Grant (Early Modern Dutch Reading & Palaeography, University College, London), Center for Medieval & Renaissance Studies, UCLA
2018 Grant for Language Study (Portuguese), Wolfson College, University of Oxford
Professional Development
2023 Travel Stipend, Dumbarton Oaks Research Library & Collection (funding toward attending the 2-week summer workshop, “Missionary Manuscripts in Mesoamerican Languages,” held at Princeton University Library, Dumbarton Oaks, and the Library of Congress, Summer 2023)
2022 UCLA Doctoral Student Travel Grants for Conferences, Professional Development and Off-Campus Research (DTG), Graduate Division, UCLA (funding toward the 1-week California Rare Books School course, “History of the Renaissance Book,” Summer 2022)
2021 Susan M. Allen California Rare Book School Fellowship in History of the Book, California Rare Book School, UCLA (funding for the 1-week CalRBS course, “Illustrated Scientific Books in Early Modern Europe,” Summer 2021)
2018 Postgraduate Bursary (conference travel grant), British Association for South Asian Studies
2018 Butler Eyles Grant (conference travel grant), British Society for the History of Science
Prizes for Academic Performance
2017 College Book Prize (for performance on Part II history exams), Gonville & Caius College, University of Cambridge
2016 Senior Scholarship (for performance on Part I history exams), Gonville & Caius College, University of Cambridge
2016 College Book Prize (for performance on Part I history exams), Gonville & Caius College, University of Cambridge
2015 Scholarship, XL America Scholarship Foundation
2014 Honorable Mention, XL America Scholarship Foundation
Conference Presentations
Conference & Workshop Organization
2023 Co-organizer with Patrick Morgan and Hannah Thomson of a graduate student conference entitled, “Frontiers, Borders, & Boundaries in the Early Global World,” UCLA Medieval & Early Modern Students Association. Los Angeles (hybrid), California, USA, June 2.
2022 Co-organizer with Stefanie Matabang and Richard Ibarra of a graduate student conference entitled, “Intersectionality in the Early Global World,” UCLA Medieval & Early Modern Students Association, Los Angeles (online), California, USA, May 20-21.
2018 Assistant Organizer with Prof. Giuseppe Marcocci and Andre Jockyman Roithmann of a graduate workshop entitled, “Exploring Iberian History: An Interdisciplinary Graduate Workshop,” University of Oxford, Oxford, United Kingdom, June 15.
Conference Presentations
Nov 2023 Chair/Commenter, “Indigenous Mobility, Family Making, and Social Change in Colonial Mexico” (2023 Ethnohistory Conference, Florida State University, hybrid)
Oct 2023 “Mestizo Apostate: A Cebuano Between the Visayan World and the Transpacific Mexican Inquisition” (2023 Sixteenth-Century Conference, Baltimore).
July 2022 “The Philippine Inquisition: A Transpacific Archive for Southeast Asian History” (2022 WISLI Student Conference, Wisconsin Intensive Summer Language Institutes, University of Wisconsin–Madison).
May 2021 “‘Dr. Orta knows better than all of us’: Investigating the Utility of ‘Orientalism’ as a Framework for Interpreting Garcia da Orta’s Colóquios (1563)” (Resilience, Resistance, and Renewal in the Medieval and Early Modern World,” The Medieval and Early Modern Student Association and Center for Medieval and Renaissance Studies (CMRS), UCLA).
Sept 2019 “‘To the King our Sovereign’: Comparing ‘Transcultural’ Knowledge Production in Works by Manuel Godinho de Erédia and Felipe Guamán Poma de Ayala” (Transcultural Knowledge: 1st Young Scholars Conference, European Society for the History of Science, Observatoire de Paris).
Sept 2018 “The Limits of Go-between Knowledge in the Works of Manuel Godinho de Erédia” (8th European Society for the History of Science Biennial Conference, University College, London).
Apr 2018 “Fruits, Fidalgos, and Fortresses: South Asia through the Eyes of a Luso-Malay Cosmographer, c. 1563-1623” (British Association for South Asian Studies Annual Conference, University of Exeter).
Sept 2017 “A Christian Landscape? Negotiating Sacred Places in the Relaciones Geográficas of New Spain, 1579-1586” (World History Workshop Geographies of World History Graduate Conference, University of Cambridge).
Other Academic Presentations
Feb 2021 “Critical Conversation: Exploring Visual Materials in the Early Modern World — Opportunities and Challenges for Global History,” presented with Jeffery C. J. Chen; hosted by Zirwat Chowdhury; respondent: Bronwen Wilson (Center for 17th- & 18th-Century Studies and the William Andrews Clark Memorial Library, UCLA).
Nov 2020 Introductory comments on the approach to early modern science and the bird of paradise in Natalie Lawrence, “Making Monsters,” in Helen Anne Curry et al (eds), Worlds of Natural History (Cambridge: Cambridge Univ. Press, 2018), 94-111 (Center for Medieval & Renaissance Studies Reading Group for Graduate Students & Faculty, UCLA).
June 2018 “Mitigating Mestiçagem: Constructing the Indigenous Mother and her Inverses in the Works of Manuel Godinho de Erédia, c. 1558-1623” (“Exploring Iberian History: An Interdisciplinary Graduate Workshop,” University of Oxford).
Invited Presentations & Radio Shows
Apr 2022 Invited Workshop Participant: “The Philippine Inquisition: A Transpacific Archive for Southeast Asian History” (“Rethinking Early Modern Empire,” Early Modern Intellectual and Cultural History Seminar 2021-2022, University of Southern California).
June 2020 Invited Participant in a pre-recorded book discussion of Humankind: A Hopeful History, by Rutger Bregman, with hosts Lee Chwi Lynn and Sharmilla Ganesan, “By the Book: Book Club June 2020 – Humankind.” Evening Edition, BFM Media, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.
Feb 2020 Invited Participant in a pre-recorded talk show, with Ong Jo Lene and host Kam Raslan. “Hybrid Museum Curator.” A Bit of Culture, BFM Media, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.
Dec 2019 Invited Speaker, “Manuel Godinho de Erédia: An ‘Orientalist from Within’?” (co-organized by the Visual Art Program, Cultural Centre, University of Malaya and the Malaysia Design Archive), Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.
Nov 2019 Invited Pre-Recorded Radio Interview: “Crossing Knowledge Boundaries in the Early Modern World,” with hosts Dr. Simon Soon and Muhammad Haniff Baharudin. Night School, BFM Media, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.
Teaching & Course Delivery Experience
2023 Teaching Associate, HIST 3A: Introduction to the History of Science, Renaissance to the Enlightenment (Instructor: Prof. Amir Alexander), Fall Quarter 2023.
2023 Teaching Associate, HIST 21: World History, circa 600 to 1760, UCLA Department of History (Instructor: Prof. Sebouh Aslanian). Winter Quarter 2023.
2022 Teaching Associate, HIST 8A: Colonial Latin America, UCLA Department of History (Instructor: Prof. Kevin Terraciano). Fall Quarter 2022.
2022 Teaching Assistant, HIST 8A: Colonial Latin America, UCLA Department of History (Instructor: Prof. Kevin Terraciano). Spring Quarter 2022.
2022 Graduate Student Researcher (Canvas Course Delivery Assistant), HIST 176B: History of Southeast Asia: Southeast Asia since 1815, UCLA Department of History (Instructor: Prof. Geoffrey Robinson). Spring Quarter 2022.
2022 Teaching Assistant, HIST 21: World History, circa 600 to 1760, UCLA Department of History (Instructor: Prof. Sanjay Subrahmanyam). Winter Quarter 2022.
2021 Teaching Assistant, HIST 1C: Introduction to Western Civilization: Circa 1715 to Present, UCLA Department of History (Instructor: Prof. Caroline Ford). Fall Quarter 2021.
Institutional Service & Employment
2021-24 Officer, Medieval and Early Modern Students Association (MEMSA), UCLA
2022-23 Graduate Coordinator, Pacific World Research Network, Latin American Institute, UCLA
2021-22 Treasurer, History Graduate Students Association (HGSA), Dept. of History, UCLA
2021-22 History Dept. Graduate Student Representative, Social Sciences Council (SSC), UCLA
Digital Humanities Projects
2018-present Co-Founder and Producer/Presenter, “The Global History Podcast”
2021 Web & Image Specialist, “Entre Las Aguas (Between the Waters): Tracing Spatial Journeys in the Latin American & Latinx Collection of the NSU Art Museum, Fort Lauderdale, Florida”
2021 Project Lead, “Visualizing Miguel Saderra Masó’s Earthquake Catalogue (1910): Quantifying Philippine Natural Disasters through the Eyes of a Jesuit Scientist”
