Marla A. Ramírez

Biography

I am a historian of the U.S.-Mexico borderlands with specialization in oral history, Mexican repatriation, social and legal histories of Mexican migrations, and gendered immigration experiences. I completed my doctoral degree at the University of California, Santa Barbara in Chicana and Chicano Studies and an emphasis in Feminist Studies. For the 2018-19 academic year, I was a Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the Mahindra Humanities Center at Harvard. I previously held an Assistant Professor Position at San Francisco State University and a Chancellor’s Postdoctoral Fellowship at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

My current book project, “Contested Illegality: Mexican Repatriation, Banishment, and Prolonged Consequences Across Three Generations,” examines the history of citizenship and naturalization laws and immigration policies of the Great Depression era, focusing on the unconstitutional banishment of US-citizens of Mexican descent that tore apart thousands of families across the US-Mexico border. My research has been supported by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, the Mahindra Humanities Center at Harvard, the San Francisco State University’s Development for Research and Creativity Grant, the Ford Foundation, and the University of California’s Fletcher Jones Fellowship.

Professor Ramírez is not currently accepting incoming graduate students for academic year 2025-26.

Education

Ph.D., University of California, Santa Barbara
M.A., University of California, Santa Barbara
B.A., University of California, Los Angeles
A.A., Cerritos Community College

Selected Publications

• “The Making of Mexican Illegality: Immigration Exclusions Based on Race, Class Status, and Gender.” Journal of New Political Science 40, no. 2 (2018): 317-335.
• “The ‘Immigrant Problem:’ A Historical Review and the New Impacts under Trump.” In The Possible Futures of the US Under Trump 2017, edited by Stefania De Petris and Gregory Shank, 26-29. Social Justice: A Journal of Crime, Conflict & World Order. E-book.
• Lisette, Amaya, Wendy Escobar, Monique Gonzalez, Heather Henderson, Angelo Mathay, and Marla A. Ramírez. “Undocumented Students: Unfulfilled Dreams.” UCLA Center for Labor, Research, and Education. (2007): 1-16.

Advisor To

• Julia do Prado

Selected Awards

• Mahindra Humanities Center at Harvard, Postdoctoral Fellowship, 2018-19
• Binational Visiting Fellow Tandem Program, GHI WEST, UC Berkeley, 2018-19 (declined)
• Junior Faculty with Effective Pedagogical Approaches Recognition, San Francisco State Univeristy, 2017
• Ford Foundation Fellowship, Semifinalist, 2017
• Exemplary Diversity Scholar Award, National Center for Institutional Diversity, University of Michigan, 2016
• Chancellor’s Postdoctoral Fellowship, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 2015-16
• Teaching Recognition, Ranked as “Excellent” by Student Evaluations at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 2015
• Emerging Diversity Scholar Award, National Center for Institutional Diversity, University of Michigan, 2015

History Courses

• History 109 – Latina/o/x History – Syllabus 2019 (pdf)
• History 153 – Latina/Latino/Latinx History – Syllabus 2024 (pdf)
• History 200 – Historical Studies: Latina/Latino/Latinxs and the Law – Syllabus 2020 (pdf)
• History 201 – The Historian’s Craft: Recording Latinx History in Wisconsin – Syllabus 2022 (pdf)
• History 201 – The Historian’s Craft: Immigration & the U.S.-Mexico Border
• History 600 – Advanced Seminar in History: Immigration and the U.S.-Mexico Border – Syllabus 2020 (pdf)