Sonia Hernández, PhD
Historian of the U.S.-Mexican Borderlands
Dr. Sonia Hernández is the George T. & Gladys H. Abell Professor of Liberal Arts Endowment II at Texas A&M University. She joined the History Department in 2014 after seven years as Assistant and Associate Professor of History at the University of Texas-Pan American. She is a core faculty member and former director of the Latino/a & Mexican American Studies Program at Texas A&M. She is a former UT Board of Regents' Teaching Excellence Fellow, former Fulbright Fellow, a Texas A&M University Chancellor EDGES Fellow and Arts & Humanities Fellow, and a two-time National Endowment for the Humanities Fellow. Hernández received her PhD in Latin American History from the University of Houston in 2006; she has focused her research on Texas & the Southwest, Modern Mexico, and Mexican American History with particular emphases on labor, political economy, women, and border relations.
Research Portfolio
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Single Authored Books, Translations, and Edited Volumes:
Working Women into the Borderlands (Texas A&M Univ. Press, 2014).
Mujeres, Trabajo y Region Fronteriza (Mexico: INEHRM, ITCA, 2017) (Translation of Working Women)
Edited Anthologies:
With John Moran Gonzalez, ed. Reverberations of Racial Violence: Critical Reflections on the History of the Border (University of Texas Press, 2021)
Rebrotes de Violencia Racial: Reflexiones Críticas sobre la Historia de la Frontera (Monterrey, N.L: Universidad Autónoma de Nuevo León, 2024) (Translation of Reverberations) ​
Selected publications based on current Book Project:
"Por un Compatriota: Gregorio Cortez, State-Sanctioned Violence, and the Forging of an Unlikely Alliance," in Andrew Torget and Gerardo Gurza, ed. These Ragged Edges (UNC Press, 2022)​
Free online access for a limited time: "Anarcho-Motherhood, Border Controls, and Resistance in the Greater U.S.-Mexico Borderlands" California History (2024) 101 (4): 61–81 This special Issue marks the centennial of the Johnson Reed Act and the founding of the US Border Patrol.
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New Projects in Exploratory Research/Drafting phase
Research Article on women's anti-lynching efforts in Texas 1870-1940
Research Article on women's contributions to ranching and farming in Texas
Historiographical Article: State of the Field: Mexican Americans in Texas History
Research Article on the Lynching of Pascual Orozco
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Public & Community Engagement
Refusing to Forget, Co-Founder [non-profit, collaborative public-facing project on History of anti-Mexican Violence, 1910-1920] Est. 2014 (see also 'Public History' tab from main page)
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Texas History topic lectures for THECB OERTX Project led by Drs. Jessica Herzogenrath & Troy Bickham (2023)
https://oertx.highered.texas.gov/courseware/lesson/3691
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Interview with Dawn Marie Paley on "For a Just and Better World,"with editor of Ojala (Mexico City) a digital weekly dedicated to journalism and analysis that aims to foster a common sense of dissidence (2023)
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Board member, The Alliance for Texas History, 600 member historical society founded in 2024.
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Interview with CNN online
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Process, a Blog for the Journal of American History on
“Recovering Histories of Gendered State Violence,” December 19, 2023 https://www.processhistory.org/hernandez-recovering-histories-of-gendered-state-violence/.
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3 Year Program 'Bridging the Humanities & Hard Sciences' where students explore the US-Mexican Border region to make connections to history, engineering, law, and other disciplines. Border Trip with Students ​
2019 NEH Conference on Centennial of the Canales Hearings on Texas Ranger Violence http://canalesconference.dh.tamu.edu/
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International Outreach with Mexican Scholars: Coloquio Internacional de la Historia del Noreste Mexicano y Texas
https://coloquionorestexas.com
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2019 Fulbright Grant for Cortez Project
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Reviews of For a Just and Better World
Southwestern Historical Quarterly
Latin American Research Review
Latinos in Publishing.com
Hispanic American Historical Review
Global Labour Journal
H-Net
Journal of American Ethnic History
Reviews of Reverberations of Racial Violence
Journal of American History
Journal of Borderlands Studies
Southwestern Historical Quarterly
San Antonio Review
Journal of Arizona History
Interview with co-editors New Books in Latino Studies
Twitter#@soniahistoria
For University related question, reach me at soniah@tamu.edu
For non-profit, public history project, reach me at shernandez11@icloud.com
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