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Merrill sponsors a Faculty Lecture Series, where faculty fellows of the college discuss their current research. These lectures sustain an intellectual community among faculty, graduate students, and undergraduates.
Spring Quarter, 2008
 
Julianne Burton Carvajal, Professor of Literature
Before the Border: Mexicano or Californio?
Eighteen recently rediscovered letters (1856-1860) - the final correspondence of Jose Castro, last Comandante General of Mexican California - prompted research that sheds new light on Castro's ignominious demise and 150 years of historical mis-representation. His story is emblematic of the ruptured lives of Mexican-heritage Californios in the aftermath of the American takeover in 1846.
Marking the publication of Jose Castro in the Two Californias, San Diego: Los Californios and Monterey History & Art Association, spring 2008.
Winter Quarter, 2008
 
Kent Eaton, Associate Professor of Politics
Police vs. Military Reform in Argentina:
Or Why Reining in Cops May Be Harder than Controlling Soldiers
Civil-military relations receive far more attention from comparativists than the relationship between politicians and police forces, but the latter is now equally significant as an arena for security reform in Latin America. This paper explores the political obstacles that make police reform so difficult in the region, and so inherently different from parallel efforts to assert civilian control over the military. I focus on Argentina, a particularly useful case in which to explore the empirical, conceptual, and theoretical differences between police and military reform. I argue that five significant obstacles have complicated police reform efforts in Argentina, including: 1) a "transition via collapse" that focused reformers on military rather than police institutions, 2) the participation of a broad set of actors with both national and subnational identities, 3) illicit revenue flows to political parties from unreformed police forces, 4) a deep divide within civil society over the appropriate response to increasing crime rates, and 5) the growing privatization of domestic security.
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