Schools for U.S.-Mexico Borderlands/Chican@ History

[MikeTheFronterizo]

Hi everyone!

I have been lurking around the grad cafe for a while now and finally decided to contribute and ask questions in the community!

I noticed that there is not a lot of talk on Latin American, Mexican, U.S.-Mexico Borderlands, and Mexican-American History. Partly because some of them are their own majors and are interdisciplinary with History. However, as a History undergrad, I focused on the borderlands and Mexican-American History because I wanted to do History while learning all the Chican@ theory. I thought it would be a good idea to begin a thread on programs that offer a variety of specializations in the area because many of them offer a U.S. History masters/Phd in which one can specialize on transitional, borderland, or American West topics. I also wanted to know other programs out there that I have not yet discovered because many of my prospects are in the southwest specifically in California.

So, I will begin with a quick blurb about myself and schools that I will be applying to in the Fall.

I am a senior and History major. Currently, I am set to apply in the fall. I primarily focus on the San Diego-Tijuana border and to a greater degree Mexican-American identity and the southwest. I noticed that many schools have an interdisciplinary faculty when it comes to an area like mine. Some have a History faculty member that specializes on the subject while others have American West faculty. So I decided to look for PhD programs that seems to fit my topic either directly or with similarities.

I am looking for a program that is competitive in my field and area of specialty. Many people claim that with a PhD from a top 10 University in History guarantees the best possible training and future job prospect. But many of those "top 10" do not have my area of specialization let alone History faculty that can advise me.

This is my list so far (I will include additional information for the first two which are my top choices):

UCSB- Offers a program History specialization on Comparative Race and Ethnicity that resembles my topic interest. There is also faculty members that is in my area of research.

USC-Offers several programs in my area. Within a major field, you have a choice in areas of specialization which includes: American West, Urbanism, and Modernity. There are a lot of good faculty including the great George Sanchez.

UCI, UCSD, UT-El Paso

On a side note, there are other schools that I wish to apply to but given my GPA and other factors I will most likely choose only one to apply to because of my budget. They include UC Berkeley, Stanford, and UCLA.

Please add to the conversation! Whether you are in this area or have some advice and suggestions, I would love to hear your input. 

Cheers!

 

[TMP]

Look up Lilia Fernandez at Ohio State University.  While her geographical focus is the Midwest, she does deal with some of the borderlands/identity issues.  It is true that you would need to apply either as a Latin Americanists with Mexico focus, or US historian with focus on American West or Latino history.  It'll depend on your larger questions and through which lens you wish to examine.

[stillalivetui]

Good to have some company on board. I focus on Mexican-American and Latina/o history as well. You hit the usual suspects on your list as many scholars in our field are located in the Southwest (Mostly the UCs).

I would suggest looking into Michigan. Anthony Mora has done some great work in what you're interested in. The Latina/o Studies program there is also very strong. I visited just last week and was very happy to see how interdisciplinary the history department is there. The University of Chicago may also be of interest for you since Ramon Gutierrez teaches there. You can also get tuition waivers to these schools (and the aforementioned Ohio State) through the CIC Free App program. Here's the link: https://www.cic.net/students/freeapp/introduction. 

Lastly, I assume you're applying to Stanford to work with Albert Camarillo. Unfortunately, he is set to retire the next couple of years and is no longer taking new students. It'll be exciting to see whom they hire to replace him.

Edited March 29, 2016 by stillalivetui

[johnnycomelately]

Anthony Mora, and a few others at U Michigan, work on borderland issues. His latest book Border Dilemmas might also be worthwhile reading depending on your period of focus. 

^Posted at the same time, ha. 

Edited March 29, 2016 by johnnycomelately

[navyblackmaroon]

That is interesting. I work on Tijuana's urbanization, planning, and subsequent social changes since the 1960s. As already mentioned before, Ramon Gutierrez may be a good person to contact. Another potential person of interest is Geraldo Cadava at Northwestern. His first book was on the common business culture between Sonora and Southern Arizona (Tucson). His current project, on the other hand, attempts to trace the development of Chicano conservatism in the second half of the 20th century. I think Cadava may be really interested on a project that somehow touches the Tijuana-San Diego border.

 

[displayname]

I'd recommend UC - Davis. There's Andres Resendez and Lorena Oropeza. Plus, if you're in Davis, you could likely have some working relationship with Brian Delay at Berkeley or Stephen Haber at Stanford.

[kafcat]

I am a transfronteriza student and as a cross-border commuter from Tijuana, I have done my undergraduate research on cross-border commuter's perceptions of border enforcement at the Tijuana/SD border. I ended up choosing political science for a PhD program (got into ucla and UCI ) because I want to study the national security aspects of border security and how these measures have increased classism and racial profiling. Additionally, I am interested in border theory (especially critical theory and its relation to border controls). If you are sure you only want to do border studies, UT Austin has a good "masters" but not a PhD. It also depends on what approach you want to take. Sociology is probably the best field to study immigration and borders, but there's also great people in geography, anthropology, and history. The big names that stand out to me are DeSipio (from UCI) and Douglas Massey (Princeton...one of the best border/immigration scholars). UC Berkeley's Soc prob is good but I don't think you would benefit a lot from it since it does more stuff on immigrant incorporation. UCSD is somewhat okay depending on the department you want to go for...but there's better schools out there. The point is that education is what you make of it and no matter what school you choose, it is how you use the resources that will count. I am really interested in border stuff so you can PM me if you want more input. 

 

Edited March 29, 2016 by kafcat

[ashiepoo72]

27 minutes ago, displayname said:

I'd recommend UC - Davis. There's Andres Resendez and Lorena Oropeza. Plus, if you're in Davis, you could likely have some working relationship with Brian Delay at Berkeley or Stephen Haber at Stanford.

Also, Rachel St. John is coming to Davis in the fall. There's a lot of work on borderlands and transnational history being done here.

[displayname]

13 minutes ago, ashiepoo72 said:

Also, Rachel St. John is coming to Davis in the fall. There's a lot of work on borderlands and transnational history being done here.

Wow - I didn't know that!  In that case, OP, I would put Davis at the top of your list. Having two top BL scholars, plus the resources of the UC's and the proximity to other scholars/your region of study makes it really stand out.

[mvlchicago]

I would second Ohio State. Alcira Duenas is currently a JCB fellow and she is absolutely phenomenal as a human being also very smart 10/10.

Byron Hamann is there too albeit in art history and precolonial to colonial, but the dude is incredibly resourceful and I could only imagine a very helpful perspective on one's dissertation.

I'd also put a small plug in for Brown, mostly because our Latin American faculty have gotten fairly deep over the past three or four years, and the Modern Culture and Media and Africana Studies allow for some more coverage in regards to your interdisciplinary concerns. 
 

[MikeTheFronterizo]

20 hours ago, stillalivetui said:

Good to have some company on board. I focus on Mexican-American and Latina/o history as well. You hit the usual suspects on your list as many scholars in our field are located in the Southwest (Mostly the UCs).

I would suggest looking into Michigan. Anthony Mora has done some great work in what you're interested in. The Latina/o Studies program there is also very strong. I visited just last week and was very happy to see how interdisciplinary the history department is there. The University of Chicago may also be of interest for you since Ramon Gutierrez teaches there. You can also get tuition waivers to these schools (and the aforementioned Ohio State) through the CIC Free App program. Here's the link: https://www.cic.net/students/freeapp/introduction. 

Lastly, I assume you're applying to Stanford to work with Albert Camarillo. Unfortunately, he is set to retire the next couple of years and is no longer taking new students. It'll be exciting to see whom they hire to replace him.

Thank You for the suggestion. I have not heard of the CIC and now I am considering looking into the participating universities. U of Michigan looks like a nice place to study it at and the work by Mora is indeed very interesting.

20 hours ago, navyblackmaroon said:

That is interesting. I work on Tijuana's urbanization, planning, and subsequent social changes since the 1960s. As already mentioned before, Ramon Gutierrez may be a good person to contact. Another potential person of interest is Geraldo Cadava at Northwestern. His first book was on the common business culture between Sonora and Southern Arizona (Tucson). His current project, on the other hand, attempts to trace the development of Chicano conservatism in the second half of the 20th century. I think Cadava may be really interested on a project that somehow touches the Tijuana-San Diego border.

 

Very nice! I am also interested in the post 1960s but my research is intended to be pre-1960s. Specifically, I am doing work between 1900 to the 1940s in the early urbanization and economy of Tijuana. As mentioned above, I am now interested into looking at some of the CIC schools that includes Northwestern.

[MikeTheFronterizo]

18 hours ago, displayname said:

I'd recommend UC - Davis. There's Andres Resendez and Lorena Oropeza. Plus, if you're in Davis, you could likely have some working relationship with Brian Delay at Berkeley or Stephen Haber at Stanford.

 

18 hours ago, ashiepoo72 said:

Also, Rachel St. John is coming to Davis in the fall. There's a lot of work on borderlands and transnational history being done here.

 

17 hours ago, displayname said:

Wow - I didn't know that!  In that case, OP, I would put Davis at the top of your list. Having two top BL scholars, plus the resources of the UC's and the proximity to other scholars/your region of study makes it really stand out.

My brother is an undergrad at UCD and also recommended Lorena Oropeza! I completely forgot about looking deeper at the program there. 

Thank you for mentioning Rachel St. John! I just did some research on her and her area of research is pretty much identical to mine. She has an interesting paper that I have not yet come across in my research on the Tijuana vice industry of the 1910s-1930s. I wrote about the topic last quarter and I have to say it's very similar in terms of subject but Professor St. John takes another point of view that I did not think of.

I am now seriously looking into UCD because of the her and the other faculty. Once again thanks!

[MikeTheFronterizo]

18 hours ago, kafcat said:

I am a transfronteriza student and as a cross-border commuter from Tijuana, I have done my undergraduate research on cross-border commuter's perceptions of border enforcement at the Tijuana/SD border. I ended up choosing political science for a PhD program (got into ucla and UCI ) because I want to study the national security aspects of border security and how these measures have increased classism and racial profiling. Additionally, I am interested in border theory (especially critical theory and its relation to border controls). If you are sure you only want to do border studies, UT Austin has a good "masters" but not a PhD. It also depends on what approach you want to take. Sociology is probably the best field to study immigration and borders, but there's also great people in geography, anthropology, and history. The big names that stand out to me are DeSipio (from UCI) and Douglas Massey (Princeton...one of the best border/immigration scholars). UC Berkeley's Soc prob is good but I don't think you would benefit a lot from it since it does more stuff on immigrant incorporation. UCSD is somewhat okay depending on the department you want to go for...but there's better schools out there. The point is that education is what you make of it and no matter what school you choose, it is how you use the resources that will count. I am really interested in border stuff so you can PM me if you want more input. 

 

Very cool! I myself was a transfronterizo student for much of my elementary schooling until I permanently moved to San Diego. After that, my mom lived in Tijuana for my last two years of High School in which I decided to stay in San Diego with my uncle because it was simply easier to do. The whole aspect of crossing the border and going to school led to my interest in Tijuana. I began to question how Tijuana (and pretty much all other border towns) had such a large transfronterizo community and found that the San Diego-Tijuana region lacks historical scholarship in English especially pre-1960s. 

Anyways, I want to stick with History because I want to do work in the historical field of the borderlands in the early 20th century. Thanks for the suggestions and I am more than willing to continue discussing border stuff with you (and anyone). 

[AZMoose]

Southern Methodist University in Dallas has strengths in Borderlands History.  They have a pretty decent funding package if admitted, $20K for five years, full tuition, insurance, and summer research funding possibilities.  I was admitted there, so that is how I know the package, but I will be attending elsewhere.  You might also want to look into the Arizona and Arizona State and do some research on profs and what kind of Borderlands scholarship is coming out of those schools.  Possibly U New Mexico as well.  I'm not a Borderlands scholar (I focus on Native American/US West/Environmental), so perhaps just suggesting the southwestern schools seems a bit too obvious.  However, they are not bad places to start when looking at potential landing spots.  Good luck!  

[Sigaba]

6 hours ago, MikeTheFronterizo said:

Very cool! I myself was a transfronterizo student for much of my elementary schooling until I permanently moved to San Diego. After that, my mom lived in Tijuana for my last two years of High School in which I decided to stay in San Diego with my uncle because it was simply easier to do. The whole aspect of crossing the border and going to school led to my interest in Tijuana. I began to question how Tijuana (and pretty much all other border towns) had such a large transfronterizo community and found that the San Diego-Tijuana region lacks historical scholarship in English especially pre-1960s. 

Anyways, I want to stick with History because I want to do work in the historical field of the borderlands in the early 20th century. Thanks for the suggestions and I am more than willing to continue discussing border stuff with you (and anyone). 

Hey, MTF, welcome to the GradCafe! Four quick suggestions.

First, get a sense of how much longer Professor Sanchez at USC plans to remain active. There are few feelings worse than the one that comes from going somewhere to work with a specific professor only to learn that he/she is counting the semesters to retirement.

Second, when you look at UCI, please give a look at Ana Rosas.

Third, you're looking at people and departments that may match your interests, but don't neglect researching the libraries and archives with an eye towards potential dissertation topics.

Fourth, I encourage you to start, as in right away, thinking of yourself as a historian rather than as an undergraduate considering graduate school. Please take a look at your OP. Then, look at @kafcat's . Please notice how @kafcat got right to it while you waited a few posts to define your specific interests? I very strongly recommend that you do what you can to lead with the portion in bold type when it comes to defining what you want to study and why. Please keep in mind that you are throwing your hat into a profoundly intense intellectual competition. IME, the more successful competitors are the ones who can demonstrate a sense of how they want to advance existing trajectories of historiography.

[ToomuchLes]

15 hours ago, MikeTheFronterizo said:

My brother is an undergrad at UCD and also recommended Lorena Oropeza! I completely forgot about looking deeper at the program there. 

Thank you for mentioning Rachel St. John! I just did some research on her and her area of research is pretty much identical to mine. She has an interesting paper that I have not yet come across in my research on the Tijuana vice industry of the 1910s-1930s. I wrote about the topic last quarter and I have to say it's very similar in terms of subject but Professor St. John takes another point of view that I did not think of.

I am now seriously looking into UCD because of the her and the other faculty. Once again thanks!

2

I second ... or third, .. working with Dr. Resendez and Dr. Oropeza. I knew them during my undergrad years at UCD, and they're fantastic people! I don't study Mexican/Chicano history, so unfortunately I cannot speak for their scholarship but it seems other people already have =)

[kyjin]

16 hours ago, Sigaba said:

First, get a sense of how much longer Professor Sanchez at USC plans to remain active. There are few feelings worse than the one that comes from going somewhere to work with a specific professor only to learn that he/she is counting the semesters to retirement.

I agree that you should contact him, but I know Sanchez took a couple new students this year, so I assume he'll be around for awhile. I don't work with him, but I am at USC and can answer any questions you have about the program.  Good luck on your search!

[MikeTheFronterizo]

Hi everyone!

Just wanted to give a quick update!

So far I have drastically changed the way in which I am going to approach my search. Thanks @Sigaba for the advice. I am especially putting more emphasis on number four of your post. Since I am (and all of us are) engaging in a highly intellectual area of study I am beginning to scratch away my shyness and at times lack of confidence to say that I AM A HISTORIAN!

Here is a quick blurb on my area of study:

I want to study the U.S.-Mexico borderlands because it provides a unique perspective that situates both Mexican and Mexican-Americans within a larger historical framework after the signing of the treaty of Guadalupe-Hidalgo in 1848. Furthermore, the borderlands formed after 1848 began a physical, and phycological, border between Anglo-Americans and peoples of Mexican descent. I chose to focus on the border between San Diego and Tijuana because of the thin scholarly work that has surfaced within the last few decades. Most work in the region revolves around contemporary environmental issues surrounding the use of the Tijuana River Valley and reclamation of water. Historical work can only be attributed to few secondary sources many of which provide an often superficial encounter within the area of Tijuana. My last project consisted on examining the vice industry in Tijuana from 1910 to 1939 looking closely on the governors of Baja California Norte and their involvement in the industry. I am in the process of researching for my senior thesis that expands over two-quarters. The thesis is also grounded in the vice industry and looks into sexual policing along the borderland which includes Tijuana and Ciudad Juarez. Along with these research interest, I want to expand my thematic field to include nationalism along the borderland, Chican@ history, race and ethnicity, American West, and indigenous histories.

Updated list of Programs:

UC Davis- Three possible advisors I can work with. Andres Resendez, Lorena Oropeza, and Rachel St. John. Along with that help, I can stay within the UC system. UCD is also one of the programs that have a specific "borderland" research area within the department.  

UC Santa Barbra-  Comparative race and ethnicity with James Brooks and Veronica Castillo-Munoz.

U of Michigan- With Anthony Mora. Also provides very good funding and other opportunities. 

UC Santa Cruz- While I am currently an undergrad here, my senior thesis advisor (Grace Pena-Delgado) is giving me very good positive feedback. She is also a specialist in the borderlands and other areas of interest. However, I want to branch out into other intellectual spheres but I am completely open and comfortable where I am at now.

UT-El Paso, SMU, U of Chicago, UCI, ASU, U of Arizona

Thanks Everyone!

[MastigosAtLarge]

I think Steve Stern and a lot of others are still at Wisconsin.  He's more of a Latin Americanist, I'm not sure where they are specifically for BL.

[MastigosAtLarge]

On closer examination, he also wrote a book about gender and patriarchy in late colonial Mexico. 

[gsc]

I'm surprised nobody has mentioned UT-Austin-- admittedly, I'm not a Latin Americanist by any means, but the archival resources at UT would be phenomenal, if nothing else.