I am currently an Associate Professor of History at Stony Brook University and research and teach in the areas of modern American, U.S. Latinx, labor, immigration, race and civil rights, and food history. I also teach seminars about the history of the U.S.-Mexico borderlands and global borderlands.
I was born and raised in a small town in south Texas, and never traveled far from home until I decided to attend Yale University against my parents’ wishes. After some initial struggles, during my sophomore year I took my first class in Mexican American history, and fell in love with the subject. After earning my degree at Yale I pursued my PhD at Stanford University, and held a postdoctoral fellowship at Bowdoin College before moving to New York.
My award-winning first book, Grounds for Dreaming: Mexican Americans, Mexican Immigrants, and the California Farmworker Movement (Yale University Press, 2016), analyzes the relationships between Mexican Americans, bracero guestworkers, and undocumented immigrants in their struggles for civil and labor rights in California’s Salinas Valley from the 1940s to the present. I am also the co-editor with Jocelyn Olcott of the completely revised and updated anthology The Academic’s Handbook (Duke University Press, 2020). I am finishing my new book Starved for Respect (UNC Press, Latinx Histories Series, Fall 2024), which focuses on the long and deep contributions of Latinx workers to U.S. food economies and cultures between World War II and COVID.
I have received fellowships for my research and writing from the Russell Sage Foundation, the Rockefeller Foundation’s Bellagio Center in Italy, the Huntington Library, the Beinecke Library, and the Ford Foundation.
When I’m not writing or teaching, I enjoy traveling, running, kayaking, trying new food, and taking photos of beautiful places.
Contact Me
Email me! I’m happy to answer questions about my work or guest speaking invitations. I have just been named an Organization of American Historians Distinguished Lecturer for 2023-2026, and can be booked for a talk or event through the OAH.
You can download my most recent CV here.
Photo: Ananda Shorey