Alcohol, Race and Ethnicity: The United States, Mexico and the Wider World, 1845-1940

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Stereotypes about "national" or "ethnic" drinking styles can be harmful, both by shaping drinking behaviours and by fostering racial prejudice. Racial stereotypes have shaped alcohol regulation, marketing practices and harm-reduction policies in the United States and Mexico, and in other parts of the world, since at least the nineteenth century. Some continue to do so to this day, with serious consequences for public health and race relations.Understanding the history and development of these racial stereotypes is a critical step in reducing the harm that they do. This project examines how and why racial stereotypes about drinking developed in the United States and Mexico between 1845 and 1940, and how they interacted. Very little is known about the extent of dialogue between the multiple racial stereotypes about the drinking behaviours of different ethnic groups that formed in this time period. Nor do we know the extent and effects of transnational exchanges about alcohol and race.The period from 1845 to 1940 was marked by increasing intercultural contact and conflict between the US and Mexico, and by racial ideologies underpinning the formation of ideas of national identity in both countries. Analysing the commonalities and interaction of different stereotypes within and across borders can therefore reveal the relationship between the racial stereotypes about drinking, debates about the state of the nation, and the increasingly unequal power relations between the US and Mexico. To achieve this, the research analyses points of heightened international exchange: the Mexican American War (1846-48), international exhibitions (1876-1929), international alcohol conferences (1885-1939) and temperance tours (1891-1940). To systematically examine a range of popular and official perspectives on alcohol, it studies a diverse range of historical material, including diaries, correspondence, newspapers, military field orders, exhibition catalogues, prize lists and commentaries, conference proceedings, government education and development records, and the papers of international temperance organisations.This historical study of racial stereotypes in the US and Mexico will be disseminated as a book length monograph, journal articles and conference papers. It will also be the starting point for a collaborative investigation of the racialisation of drinking behaviours as a global phenomenon. I will convene two small workshops and a larger interdisciplinary conference to lead a collaborative research agenda on alcohol and race in a global context, resulting in the publication of an edited book. Throughout the project, blog posts and working papers will be published online, charting the development of the research, and publicised via social media. I convene a Drinking Studies Network, which issues a monthly newsletter with 275 academic and non-academic subscribers and has a twitter account with over 1,550 followers. This will ensure the project's ongoing research, events and outputs reach a wide audience. In turn, the fellowship will improve my capacity to lead the Network in new directions, consolidating its international reach and impact and providing a model for future collaborative research on a global scale.To disseminate how this research can help to improve contemporary approaches to reducing alcohol-related harm, I will work with the Director of Research and Policy at Alcohol Research UK/Alcohol Concern, the UK's most important charity working to reduce alcohol-related harm. The Director will participate in all the project's events, act as a mentor in successfully mobilising historical research to inform contemporary policy, and assist me in cementing working relationships with other organisations in the UK and beyond. To build capacity in this area, I will convene a further workshop that trains arts and humanities scholars to engage with organisations seeking to address problem drinking.