Kai R. Werner

Ph.D. Student (ABD)

Advisor: Joshua Piker
Email: [[kwerner]]
Current Research: Spanish Borderlands; Early America; American West

Bio

Kai Werner is a sixth-year Ph.D. candidate at William & Mary specializing in the histories of early modern North America and the Pacific. His dissertation, "A Thousand Approaches to the Kingdom of New Mexico: Ruins, Migration, and the Invention of North America," explores how the movements of Indigenous peoples and the layered histories of New Mexico shaped imperial visions of North American geography throughout the colonial period.

At William & Mary, Kai teaches on the Spanish Borderlands and the early American West, in classes that bridge the histories of Latin America, early America, and the Pacific World. His work has been recognized and supported by the Western History Association, the John Carter Brown Library, and the McNeil Center for Early American Studies, among others. Kai holds a B.A. in History from the University of New Mexico (2018) and an M.A. in History from William & Mary (2021). He expects to defend his dissertation in the Spring of 2026.