Current PhD Students
Freddy Cabral
Freddy Cabral is originally from El Paso, Texas. He earned both a BA and an MA in history from UTEP in 2017 and 2020. Freddy is a member of the Lipan Apache Tribe - an Indigenous community in Texas. As a PhD student, his research focuses on a previously unexamined aspect of Lipan Apache historiography - how the non-reservation Lipan Apache have upheld and continue to uphold their identity over the decades. Freddy hopes his PhD research at UTEP will open a new dialogue on Indigenous communities on the US-Mexico Borderlands.
fcabral@miners.utep.edu
José Enríquez
José Enríquez is a proud El Paso native and is currently pursuing a Ph.D. in History at UTEP. José's research focuses on the histories of education and labor in El Paso, and how both intersected with the structural inequalities of the United States. He looks at how vocational education supported local labor needs, especially when it concerned the immigrant populations of El Paso. His fields of study include education, labor, borderlands, gender, and race.
jaenriquez12@miners.utep.edu
Eduardo Galvan
I am a Native El Pasoan with a master's degree in history along with certificates in teaching and Public & Oral History. I specialize in borderland studies and the history of war and violence, specifically the activities of local militias, guerilla fighters, and asymmetrical combatants during the 19th and 20th centuries, as well as the evolution of counter measures by the American military. I am currently developing a proposed dissertation topic on the conditions that made the Mexican American borderlands a suitable battleground for modern asymmetrical warfare from the 1880's to the 1930's. I have also conducted historic interviews, presented at conferences, and researched and developed exhibits for the El Paso Historic Society and the UTEP Centennial Museum.
eigalvan@miners.utep.edu
Alex Garcia
Alejandro Garcia holds multiple degrees from the University of Texas at El Paso (UTEP) including an M.A. in History, a B.A. in Multidisciplinary Studies, and another B.A. in Anthropology. Currently he is pursuing a Ph.D. Borderlands History and researching the ongoing process of constitutional recognition for afro-descendant communities in Mexico by defining cultural difference through music and other cultural expressions. Alejandro has served as a guest lecturer, curator, assistant curator, and as a researcher for exhibits at The American Museum of Natural History in New York, The History Museum of El Paso, and the Centennial Museum at UTEP.
Samantha Garcia
Samantha Garcia was born in Dallas but has lived in El Paso since age 10. Garcia received her bachelor's degree at the University of Texas at El Paso, majoring in history and minoring in women's and gender studies. As a second year PhD student, Garcia is still investigating options for her dissertation, but has previously completed projects on fetal images and the Hotel Dieu School of Nursing. Current thematic areas of interest include gender and sexuality, race and race science, and medical history.
sngarcia6@miners.utep.edu
Nicole Gonzales
Nicole Gonzales was born in Las Cruces, NM. She earned her B.A. and M.A. in History from New Mexico State University and is currently completing a Ph.D. in History at UTEP. Her research focuses on Chinese immigration to the El Paso borderlands in the early 1900s, exploring migration networks, community formation, and cross-cultural interactions that shaped the region. Nicole’s work employs archival research, oral histories, and spatial analysis to recover overlooked Borderland histories. After completing her doctorate, she plans to pursue a career teaching history at the university level.
ngonzales3@miners.utep.edu
Karla Hernandez-Hernandez
Karla Hernandez-Hernandez was born and raised in Ciudad Juarez, Chihuahua. She earned her bachelor's degree in history from the Universidad Autónoma de Ciudad Juárez (UACJ) where she worked as a research assistant and wrote a thesis titled “Formación de la región fronteriza entre México y los Estados Unidos durante 1836-1854.” Karla’s research focuses on the study of the border region of Mexico-United States in the first half of the nineteenth century with emphasis in the present-day region of Ciudad Juarez-El Paso, daily life, and change over time with the Mexican American War.
khernandezher@miners.utep.edu
Miguel Hernandez Vasquez
Born and raised in Mexico City, Miguel Hernandez moved to Ciudad Juarez in 2006 where he earned a BA in history at the Autonomous University of Ciudad Juarez (UACJ). He received an MA at UTEP where he was recognized with an outstanding graduate student in 2020. His main interests are history of science and epistemology, and Western religion and its relation to science development. He worked on environmental history for El Colegio de Chihuahua (COLECH). In Ciudad Juarez, Miguel has worked as a history, geography, and ethics teacher in various middle schools and high schools. At UTEP, he has worked in Library’s Special Collections department as an archive assistant and is currently a Teacher Assistant for the history department.
mhernandez110@miners.utep.edu
Rodrigo Luna Kan
Rodrigo Luna Kan was born in Ciudad Juárez and raised in Hidalgo del Parral. He earned his BA in History at the Universidad Autónoma de Ciudad Juárez and his MA in Education at the Universidad Pedagógica Nacional, in México. He also holds a specialization degree in Social Anthropology from the Universidad Nacional de Córdoba, in Argentina. With over ten years of experience as a middle school and high school teacher, he has also taught several university-level courses as a professor. His academic interests focus on the representation of communities descended from Chinese migrants in Mexico and the United States, as well as other migrant groups of Asian origin, during the 19th and 20th centuries, alongside the processes involved in the formation of nationalism.
rlunakan@miners.utep.edu
Diana López
Diana López was born in El Paso, Texas, and raised in Ciudad Juárez and Sunland Park, New Mexico. Her experiences as a transfronteriza Chicana inform her scholarly and museum trajectories. López is a first-generation Ph.D. candidate in Borderlands History. She earned B.A.s in Psychology, Spanish, and Gender and Sexuality Studies, along with a supplementary major in Chicana/o Studies at New Mexico State University, and an M.S. in Mexican American Studies from the University of Arizona. She combines public history, oral history, digital humanities, and mapping for projects that situate gender, collective memory, and preservation in borderlands history. She is currently the Museum Education Curator at the El Paso Museum of Art.
Jessica Martinez
Jessica Martinez’s research delves into the complex intersections of race, class, gender, ethnicity, and immigration status, uncovering how these factors shaped the labor experiences of Chicana and Mexicana garment workers along the U.S.-Mexico borderlands in the 20th century. In addition to her academic work, Jessica serves as the archivist and oral historian for La Mujer Obrera, a labor organization established in 1981 by displaced El Paso garment workers and Chicana activists.
jmartinez152@miners.utep.edu
Ernest McClure
El Paso native, Ernesto McClure, is pursuing a Ph.D. in History at UTEP. Ernesto's research focuses on the study of Paño Arte, a unique art form originating among Mexican American prisoners in the early 20th century. This handkerchief art, deeply embedded in ChicanX culture, provides a lens through which the experiences and expressions of incarcerated individuals in the Southwestern United States are understood and analyzed. Ernesto enjoys engaging students and colleagues in critical discussions about culture, history, and society while his work illuminates overlooked aspects of ChicanX culture and encourages a deeper understanding of the complexities surrounding subaltern voices in historical narratives.
ecmcclure@miners.utep.edu
Rocío Irene Mejía García
Rocío Irene Mejía García has a Master’s degree in Hispanic Literature and a Specialization Certificate in Women Studies from El Colegio de México in Mexico City. She also has an M.A. in Latin American and Border Studies from the University of Texas at El Paso (UTEP). She has taught at Mexican universities including the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM). Rocío is a long-time feminist activist with research interests in Cultural Studies, Gender, Literature, and their ties to History and historical processes. She has published articles, book chapters, and handbooks on gender violence, sexuality, and youth.
Marc Molina
Marc Molina is a PhD Student in the Borderlands History program at the University of Texas at El Paso. He received his BA in History at Texas A&M University – San Antonio with a minor in Mexican American/Latinx/Southwest Borderlands Studies where he completed research concerning the evolution of African American music traditions in Bexar County. Marc is currently interested in environmental history topics in 18th and 19th century Texas; particularly the ways in which food and agriculture inform our understanding of culture, society, and identity in the Texas Borderlands.
mamolina8@miners.utep.edu
Sam Reitenour
Originally from Cicero, Indiana, Sam Reitenour received his BA in History at Indiana University-Bloomington in 2021. He is primarily interested in the economic and political histories of tourism destination communities. His dissertation project addresses tourism as a sector of the economy and a source of employment in Santa Fe, New Mexico, tracing the processes through which residents were recruited to help establish and maintain the tourism industry and following residents’ competing visions of their city’s economic future across the twentieth century. Outside of research, he serves as the Graduate Assistant for the Conference on Latin American History and plans to work in the publishing industry upon completion of his PhD.
sereitenour@miners.utep.edu
Rebeca Rivas
Rebeca Rivas was born and raised in El Paso, Texas. She earned a BA in Political Science and an MA in Political Science from the University of Texas at El Paso and is currently a PhD candidate in History at UTEP. Her research focuses on the history of lucha libre in the El Paso–Ciudad Juárez borderlands from 1900 to 2015. Bringing masks, spectacle, performance, and politics into conversation, her work explores how lucha libre became a powerful space for shaping borderlands identity, community, and cultural expression.
rrivas11@miners.utep.edu
Augusto Rocha Ramírez
Augusto Rocha Ramírez is originally from Mexico and more recently from California where he earned a B.A. from CSU San Bernardino and M.A degrees from CSU Los Angeles. Augusto continued graduate training at the University of Notre Dame, where he was part of the Kellogg Institute’s on-campus community. Augusto’s volunteer work with immigrant communities and homeless animals influences his education and intellectual pursuits. At UTEP, Augusto studies Latin American history. His main interests include the history of Mexico during the Cold War.
arocharami@miners.utep.edu
Celeste Romero
Celeste Romero is a Ph.D. student studying Borderlands History with a focus on U.S. History. She received her BA in History from New Mexico State University. Her research interests include gender history and student activism of the 1960s and 1970s, and she is currently researching the impact of the Chicano movement in El Paso.
cromero19@miners.utep.edu
Andrew Schuster
I am originally from rural Wyoming. My dissertation is a sport (baseball) and labor history, in which I explore the cultural and social world of the industrializing US-Mexico Borderlands from 1880 to 1940. Specifically, I analyze three case studies that are connected by industrial activities and social geography: the copper borderlands of Arizona-Sonora, the smelting, military and agro-industrial hub of El Paso, TX/ Juárez, MX, and the mining colonias near Parral, Chihuahua as views into the materialities and meanings of the US national pastime in a borderlands context.
akschuster@miners.utep.edu
Joseph Seagrove
Joseph Seagrove holds BA and MA degrees from New Mexico State University. He studied 20th century United States history with a focus on Public History and Museum Studies. Joseph has volunteered at the El Paso Museum of History and has served as an adjunct professor at El Paso Community College. While pursuing his PhD, Joseph continues exploring Public History in the borderlands region. Currently his research interests include the American Southwest during the Jim Crow era and the impact of the American military on the borderlands.
jbseagrove@miners.utep.edu
Timothy Setter
Timothy Setter was born and raised in Kansas. He earned a BA and MA in History Secondary Education from Fort Hays State University. Research interests include ex-votos, sex and gender, labor history, collective memory, food, music and corridos, popular culture, vice, religiosity, and the intersectionality between these topics.
tjsetter@miners.utep.edu
Michael Stallings
Michael Stallings is a third-year PhD student. Born and raised in El Paso, he earned his BA in history from Texas Tech University and his MA in history from UTEP, earning the Outstanding Graduate Student in History Award in Fall 2022. Michael’s research focuses on Texas during its time as an independent republic, looking at how emigration and slavery were integral to debates over diplomatic recognition, the expansion of slavery, and abolition, particularly between Texas, the United States, Mexico, and Great Britain. Outside of research, he serves as the Center for History Teaching and Learning (CHTL) tutor for the department and as an archive support specialist for the El Paso County Historical Society.
mdstallings@miners.utep.edu
