Seonaid Valiant

Director of Scholar Engagement and Associate Archivist,

Collection Development

[email protected]

P.O. Box 871006 Tempe, AZ 85287
Mail code: 1006

Campus: Tempe
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Long Bio

Seonaid Valiant, the Associate Curator for Latin American Studies, (interim) Curator for Rare Books and Manuscripts, and Director for Scholarly Engagement in Special Collections at the ASU Library, holds a Ph.D. in History from the University of Chicago with special fields in Latin American and Art History and an MLIS from the University of Illinois. Her book, Ornamental Nationalism: Archaeology and Antiquities in Mexico, 1876-1911 (Brill, 2018) examines international debates over the meaning of Aztec symbols and the professionalization of archaeology in Mexico at the turn of the twentieth century. Valiant is now working on the professionalization of archives and has traced the provenance of several important books, such as the Popul Vuh. Her current research project is a social biography of the anthropologist and manuscript scholar Zelia Nuttall, who worked in Mexico at the turn of the last century. She has published “Zelia Nuttall and the Tonindeye Codex: Recontextualization of a Mixtec Pictorial Manuscript,” in Printing History 31/32.

Publications

Selected Publications:

Valiant, Seonaid. Guest Editor: New Area Studies Special Issue on Latin America, March 2025. Author: Introduction and “The Popul Vuh: Providing Access for Manuscripts from Latin America.” 25 March 2026.

Valiant, Seonaid. “Sharing Knowledge: 20th-Century Reproductions of the ‘Codex Tonindeye’” ASU Library. March 2024.

Valiant, Seonaid. “Zelia Nuttall and the Tonindeye Codex: Recontextualization of a Mixtec Pictorial Manuscript. Printing History 31/32. January 2023.

Valiant, Seonaid. “Digital Resources: Ruben Darío Papers at ASU.” Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Latin American History: December 2022.

Valiant, Seonaid. “Zelia Nuttall,” in Women that Changed the World. Edited by Candice Goucher. ABC-Clio, 2022.

Valiant, Seonaid. Shoestring Productions: Brazilian Storytelling through contemporary Woodcuts, Artists’ Books, and Small Press Books (1997-2021). Edited by Seonaid Valiant. Tempe, AZ: ASU Library, 2021.

Valiant, Seonaid. Apollo Magazine, “Why was Mexico so determined to stop a sale of ancient artefacts in Paris?” 23 March 2021.

Valiant, Seonaid. “Carl Lumholtz,” in El Palacio: Historiography and New Perspectives on a pre-Tarascan City of Northern Michoacán, Mexico, edited by Marion Forest. Paris Monographs in American Archaeology 53, 2020.

Valiant, Seonaid. “Sichuan University Library Exchange,” Distinctive Collections Blog, ASU Library, September 8, 2020.

Valiant, Seonaid. “The National Museum of Mexico in the Porfirian Era, 1876-1911,” Contributor to Oxford Handbook of Mexican History, Oxford University Press, edited by William Beezley. August 2020.

Valiant, Seonaid. Co-author: “A Regretful Goodbye to Mexico.” With Tatiana Seijas, Newberry Magazine, Dec 2017.

Valiant, Seonaid. “A Great Rascal: Leopoldo Batres and the Map of Teotihuacán,” Mapline, , no. 127, Nov 2017.

Valiant, Seonaid. Co-author “Voices of America” 30 September 2017.

Selected Presentations and Conferences:

Seonaid Valiant, “The Recovery and Repatriation of Mexican Manuscripts and Antiquities,” Washburn University, Department of Art, VIA Zoom, 11 March 2026.

Seonaid Valiant, “Zelia Nuttall and Early Modern Mexican Pictorial Manuscripts: Retrieval and Reproduction.” Grolier Club, New York, NY. 3 October 2023.

Seonaid Valiant, “Zelia Nuttall: The complicated legacy of a fin-de-siècle indigenous artifacts collector.” International Union of Prehistoric and Protohistoric Sciences. Panel: “Untold stories. Marginal scholars and/or intellectual movements in the history of archaeology.” Timisoara, Romania, 7 September 2023.

Seonaid Valiant, “The Art of Reproducing a Mixtec Pictorial Manuscript.” American Library Association Americas subcommittee panel (chair), “Sharing Knowledge: Projects and outreach for Indigenous Patrons, Languages, and Documents,” Chicago, IL, 25 June 2023.

Seonaid Valiant, “The Codex Tonindeye: From Original to Reproductions.” Design and the Arts Library. ASU, Tempe, AZ, 6 April 2023.

Seonaid Valiant, “Zelia Nuttall and the San Marco Codex,” Connecting Cultures via Books I, Durham History of the Book Conference, Organizing and Disorganizing Knowledge, via zoom, 8 September 2021.

Seonaid Valiant, “Edward E. Ayer: 19th century Antiquarian.” The Ayer Collection Past, Present, and Future, Newberry Library, 13 May 2021.

Seonaid Valiant, “Porfirian Biography as Social History,” Transnational Latin American Workshop, Arizona State University, 25 March 2021.

Seonaid Valiant, "How does paper travel? Latin American Documents in Foreign Archives," 18 September 2019.

Seonaid Valiant, “Latin American Literature in International Archives.” 24 September 2019. Special Collections Center in the Jiangan Library, Sichuan University, Chengdu, Sichuan, China.

Seonaid Valiant, “How Did This Get Here?: Mexican Documents in Foreign Archives,” Issues in Latin American Bibliography and Archives, Rocky Mountain Council for Latin American Studies, Santa Fe, NM, 5 April 2019.

Seonaid Valiant, “Los viajes del popul vuh: Guatemala, Francia y Chicago.” Colloque: Patrimoines: un fait anthropologique et politique, un défi majeur pour aujourd’ hui en Amérique latine et dans le monde.” 13-14 December 2018. Paris, France.

Seonaid Valiant, “Highlights from Ornamental Nationalism,” Newberry Library, 8 June 2018. Chicago, IL.

Seonaid Valiant, “Archaeology, Antiquities, and Manuscripts in Porfirian Mexico, 1876-1911.” School of Human Evolution and Social Change, ASU Department of Archaeology. 11 April 2018. Tempe, AZ.

Seonaid Valiant, “El Popul Vuh en la Edward E. Ayer Colección de manuscritos hispánicos de América.” Patrimonios culturales e identidades, concientización, lucha en contra del tráfico ilícito de obras de arte. 29 Septiembre 2017. Antigua, Guatemala.

Interviews:

Seonaid Valiant, “Voices from Latin America can be found in dynamic ASU research collection,” ASU News, 28 March 2024.

Seonaid Valiant, “Workshop offers students the opportunity to study rare documents from New Spain Young scholars visited the archives at the Newberry Library in Chicago.” ASU News, 18 May 2022.

Seonaid Valiant, “ASU’s Archival Collections Highlight Histories of Latine and Chicano History.” 28 April 2022.

Seonaid Valiant, “ASU at Teotihuacan: Exhibit highlights decades of University research at the ancient city”: State Press, 18 January 2019.

Seonaid Valiant, “Digging into ASU History at Teotihuacan”: ASU News. 8 January 2019.

Seonaid Valiant, “For Phoenix Artist, Ancient Mexican City Teotihuacan Inspires Creativity,” KJZZ Fronteras. 19 December 2018

Seonaid Valiant, “ASU Acquires Rare Book from Golden age Spanish Literature.” 21 November 2018.

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