My research and teaching focus on twentieth-century Mexican-American history, histories of immigration and assimilation, Latina/o literature, feminist theory, and comparative ethnic studies.  My book, The Woman in the Zoot Suit: Gender, Nationalism, and the Cultural Politics of Memory (Duke University Press, 2009), excavates the participation of Mexican-American women in the zoot subculture of the 1940s and examines the figures of the pachuca and pachuco in Chicano cultural production since the 1960s.  

I'm now writing a history of assimilation in the United States.  As a founding member of the UC Latino Cultures Network, I'm also helping develop a collaborative, online keywords resource for and about Latino studies.

I cherish both research and teaching.  In 2010, I received an Excellence in Teaching Award from my students and colleagues at the University of California, Santa Cruz, where I've worked since 2002.   

I was born and raised in Los Angeles.  I hold a Ph.D. in Ethnic Studies from the University of California, Berkeley, and am currently an Associate Professor in Latin American and Latino Studies at UC Santa Cruz.