About

George J. Sanchez

Professor of American Studies and Ethnicity and History

Contact Information
E-mail: georges@usc.edu
Phone: (213) 740-1663
Office: SOS 256

 

Biographical Sketch
GEORGE J. SANCHEZ is Professor of American Studies & Ethnicity, and History at the University of Southern California, where he also serves as Director of College Diversity. He is the author of _Becoming Mexican American: Ethnicity, Culture and Identity in Chicano Los Angeles, 1900-1945_ (Oxford, 1993), co-editor of _Los Angeles and the Future of Urban Cultures_ (Johns Hopkins University Press, 2005), and author of “’What’s Good for Boyle Heights is Good for the Jews’: Creating Multiracialism on the Eastside During the 1950s,” _American Quarterly_ 56:3 (September 2004). His academic work focuses on both historical and contemporary topics of race, gender, ethnicity, labor, and immigration, and he is currently working on a historical study of the ethnic interaction of Mexican Americans, Japanese Americans, African Americans, and Jews in the Boyle Heights area of East Los Angeles, California in the twentieth century. He is Past President of the American Studies Association in 2001-02, and is one of the co-editors of the book series, “American Crossroads: New Works in Ethnic Studies,” from the University of California Press. He currently serves as Director of the Center for Diversity and Democracy at USC, which focuses on issues of racial/ethnic diversity in higher education and issues of civic engagement. He is also co-editing, with Amy Koritz of Tulane University, _Civic Engagement in the Wake of Katrina_, to be published by University of Michigan Press in 2009. He is serving on the National Advisory Board of “Imagining America: Artists and Scholars in Public Life,” and was Program chair for their October 2008 conference in Los Angeles. He received his Ph.D. in History in 1989 from Stanford University.
 

Education
B.A. History and Sociology, Harvard University, 6/1981
M.A. History, Stanford University, 6/1984
Ph.D. History, Stanford University, 6/1989
 

Academic Appointment, Affiliation, and Employment History

Tenure Track Appointments
Associate Professor, University of Michigan, 09/01/1993-08/31/1997  
Assistant Professor, University of California, Los Angeles, 09/01/1988-08/31/1993  
 

Visiting and Temporary Appointments
Adjunct Professor in American Studies, The Center for the Study of the Americas, Copenhagen Business School, Denmark, 2004-2009  
 

Description of Research

Summary Statement of Research Interests
Professor Sanchez researches historical and contemporary topics of race, gender, ethnicity, labor, and immigration. Currently, he is working on two projects: a book on the impact of contemporary Mexican migration on the culture and politics of Los Angeles at the end of the 20th century, and a historical study of the ethnic interaction of Mexican-Americans, Japanese-Americans and Jews in the Boyle Heights area of East Los Angeles.
 

Research Specialties
(Ph.D., Stanford University, 1989) Professor of ASE and History: Chicano/a immigration, American West.
 

Funded Research

Contracts and Grants Awarded
ENHANCING DIVERSITY AT USC: THE CENTER FOR AMERICAN STUDIES (Irvine Foundation), George Sanchez, $3,600,000, 03/08/2001-09/07/2005  
 

USC Funding
Advancing Scholarship in the Humanities & Social Sciences. "The House We Live In": Race, Difference and the Genealogy of "Group Relations" Across Disciplines: This project examines how disciplines in the humanities and social sciences understand "group relations" between the more established African American community and the emerging Latino community., $25,000, 2007-2008   
 

Conferences and Other Presentations

Conference Presentations
"The Present and Future of Graduate Programs in American Studies", American Studies Association Annual Conference, Keynote Lecture, , Albuquerque, New Mexico, Invited, Fall 2008   
"Challenging the Borders of Civic Engagement: Ethnic Studies and the Meaning of Community Democracy", Connecting Communities: The University and Multi-Ethnic Civic Engagement Symposium, Keynote Lecture, , Irvine, California, University of California, Irvine, Invited, Spring 2008   
"Suburban Agonies and Urban Nightmares", Organization of American Historians annual conference, Roundtable/Panel, , New York, New York, Roundtable on "Where are Jews on America’s Multicu, Invited, Spring 2008   
"Approaching New Subjectivities: African American/Latino Relations in the Twentieth Century", American Historical Association, Comment, , Atlanta, Georgia, Spring 2007   
"Fighting for the Right to Learn: Equity and Justice in the Corporate University", Humanities or Human Resources?: The Future of Ethnic Studies and Labor in the Corporate University, Talk/Oral Presentation, , New York University, Department of American Studies, Spring 2007   
 

Other Presentations
"Latinos, the American South, and the Future of U.S. Race Relations", Invited Lecture, Latin American and Caribbean Studies, Emory University, Atlanta, GA, Spring 2007   
"Recruitment and Retention of Minorities for Graduate Work", Interactive Workshop for Directors of Graduate Studies, American Historical Association, Washington, DC, Spring 2007   
"Remembering Boyle Heights: Race and the Politics of Memory in Los Angeles", George A.V. Dunning Lecture, The Historical Society of Southern California, National Center for the Preservation of Democracy, Los Angeles, CA, Fall 2006   
 

Publications

Book
Sanchez, G. J. Bridging Borders, Remaking Community: Racial Interaction in Boyle Heights, California in the 20th Century. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press.
Sanchez, George J. and Amy Koritz (Ed.). (2008). Civic Engagement in the Wake of Katrina. Ann Arbor, Michigan: University of Michigan Press.
Sanchez, G. J., Villa, R. H. (2005). Los Angeles and the Future of Urban Cultures. Los Angeles and the Future of Urban Cultures/Johns Hopkins University Press.
Sanchez, G. J. (1993). Becoming Mexican American: Ethnicity, Culture and Identity in Chicano Los Angeles, 1900 - 1945, Oxford University Press, 1993. New York, NY: Oxford University Press.
 

Book Chapter
Sanchez, G. J. (2002). 'Y tu que?': Latino History in the New Millenium. (Vol. 45-58). Berkeley and Los Angeles: Latinos!: Remaking America/University of California Press.
 

Conference Proceeding
Sanchez, G. J. (2007). Regionalism: The Significance of Place in American Jewish Life. 2. pp. 124-127. Baltimore, MD. American Jewish History/The Johns Hopkins University Press.
 

Journal Article
Sanchez, G. J. (2007). Confronting a Crisis in the Historical Profession. Perspectives: Newsmagazine of the American Historical Association. Vol. 45 (7), pp. 49-51.
Sanchez, G. J. (2004). 'What's Good for Boyle Heights is Good for the Jews': Creating Multiracialism on the Eastside During the 1950s. American Quarterly/Johns Hopkins University Press. Vol. 56 (3)
Sanchez, G. J. (2003). Race and Immigration in Changing Communities of the United States. The Japanese Journal of American Studies. (14), pp. 7-20.
Sanchez, G. J. (2002). Working at the Crossroads: American Studies for the Twenty-First Century; Presidential Address to the American Studies Association, November 9, 2001. American Quarterly/Johns Hopkins University Press. Vol. 54 (1), pp. 1-23.
Sanchez, G. J. (2000). Creating the Multicultural Nation: Adventures in Post-national American Studies in the 1990s. Post-Nationalist American Studies / University of California Press.
Sanchez, G. J. (1997). Face the Nation: Race, Immigration, and the Rise Of Nativism in Late Twentieth Century America. International Migration Review. Vol. 31 (4)
 

Research Report
Sanchez, G. J. (2007). The History of Segregation in Los Angeles: A Report on Racial Discrimination and Its Legacy. Scheff & Washington, PC, in legal case American Civil Rights Foundation v. Los Angeles Unified School District.
Sanchez, G. J. (2005). Crossing Figueroa: The Tangled Web of Diversity and Democracy. Position Papers from Imagining America: Artists and Scholars in Public Life, University of Michigan.
Sanchez, G. J., Tierney, W. G., Campbell, D. (2004). The Road Ahead: Improving Diversity in Graduate Education. CA: Center for Higher Education Policy Analysis.
 
 

Honors and Awards
Professor of the Month, Mortar Board Undergraduate Senior Honor Society, Fall 2007   
Mellon Excellence in Mentoring Award for Mentoring Graduate Students, 2006-2007   
Recipient of National or International Prize in Discipline, Constance Rourke Prize for Best Article published in the American Quarterly, 2005-2006  
USC or School/Dept Award for Teaching, General Education Teaching Award, 2005-2006   
National Endowment for the Humanities Fellowship Recipient, Huntington Library, 2002-2003  
 

Service to the University

Administrative Appointments
Director of College Diversity, 04/2008-  
Director, Center for Diversity and Democracy, 08/2007-  
 

Service to the Profession

Committees
Chair, Imagining America: Artists and Scholars in Public Life, National Advisory Board, 2007-  
Chair, American Studies Association, Committee on Graduate Education, 2007-2010  
Chair, Organization of American Historians, ALANA (Minority) Scholars Committee, 2007-2009  
Member, Organization of American Historians, Nominating Committee, 2005-2009  
 

Conferences Organized
Chair & Organizer, Imagining America Annual Conference, Los Angeles, California, Imagining America: Artists and Scholars in Public Life, 2007-2008  
 

Editorships and Editorial Boards
Series Co-editor, American Crossroads: New Works in Ethnic Studies (Univ. of California Press), 1994-  
 

Professional Offices
President, American Studies Association, 2001-2002   
 

Professional Memberships
American Historical Association, Minority Scholars Committee, 2004-2008  
Organization of American Historians Distinguished Lecturer, 2004-2007  
American Studies Association Distinguished Lecturer, 2000-2007  
 
 
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