Graduate Students
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David-James Gonzales |
Biographical Sketch
A native Southern Californian, I was born in Oxnard and raised in the San Diego suburb of Chula Vista. I began my undergraduate education at Southwestern Community College and completed a bachelor's degree in History (Phi Beta Kappa) at UC San Diego. After graduation, I relocated to South Pasadena with my wife and two daughters to begin the P.h.D in History at USC.
At UCSD, a class on the history of Los Angeles, taught by Danny Widener, shifted my academic interests to race and ethnicity in California and the West. Then, as a McNair Scholar under David G. Gutiérrez, I developed a keen interest in the politics of immigration, which culminated in an honor’s thesis on Mexican American identity formation and grassroots political mobilization supervised by Luis Alvarez.
At USC, I have continued to pursue my interests in race and ethnicity in California and the West under the direction of George Sanchez and Bill Deverell.
Education
- B.A. History, University of California, San Diego, 06/2011
Research
Summary Statement of Research Interests
- I am a historian of race and ethnicity in the United States with a temporal focus on the twentieth century and a geographic emphasis on California and the West. My research centers on the intersections of race, space, and politics among second generation Mexican Americans in California. In particular, my work looks at the postwar formation of ethnic grassroots organizations, like the Community Service Organization (CSO) founded in the East Los Angeles community of Boyle Heights in 1947, to understand the interplay between ethno-racial identity formation and the evolution of ethnic politics among Mexican Americans in postwar Southern California. Viewing organic postwar community mobilizations as essential to the evolution of Mexican American politicization, my research seeks to reframe Chicano/a historiography beyond the interpretive binaries of radicalism and conservatism and assimilationists versus anti-assimilationists.
Research Specialties
- 20th century U.S.; California; Race and Ethnicity; Spatial politics; Mexican American identity, culture, and politics.