Carlos Parra
Chávez 319G
Research Areas
Dr. Carlos Parra completed his Ph.D. in History at the University of Southern California in 2021 where he researched Latino cultural formation in metropolitan Los Angeles and throughout the U.S.-Mexico borderlands. During his graduate studies, Dr. Parra received several prestigious fellowships, including appointments with the National Museum of American History and the Smithsonian Latino Center. Previously Parra served as a Visiting Assistant Professor of Chicana/o and Latina/o Studies at Loyola Marymount University.
A University of Arizona alumnus, Dr. Parra’s undergraduate research career began as a Ronald McNair scholar at UArizona, where he also worked as a student employee with the Office of Early Academic Outreach supporting the Mathematics, Engineering, Science Achievement Program (MESA) and the College Academy for Parents (CAP). Dr. Parra’s published research covers topics ranging from the origins of the first U.S.-Mexican border fences in Southern Arizona, the cultural assimilation of ethnic Mexican students in the early New Mexico public school system, and the cultural history of Spanish-language television in greater Latino Los Angeles.
During his fellowship, Dr. Parra will expand his research for a book manuscript, Televising Latinidad: Latino Los Angeles and the Rise of Spanish-Language TV in the United States, 1960-2010. This project will offer a critically important contribution to the study of ethnic/racial identity politics, community formation, and the media.
Nomadic Border (Latino and U.S.-Mexico Borderlands Public History Website
Sasabe, Arizona: The Phantom Bordertown
U.S.-Mexico border wall being built in Nogales, May 2011
Publications
Parra, Carlos. "Lessons in Americanization: Educational Attainment and Internal Colonialism in Albuquerque Public Schools, 1879-1942." New Mexico Historical Review, Vol. 91 (Spring 2016): 163-200.
Parra, Carlos. "Valientes Nogalenses: The 1918 Battle Between the U.S. and Mexico That Transformed Ambos Nogales." Journal of Arizona History, Vol. 51 (Spring 2010): 1-32.