Assistant Professor
North America
American history equips us with the tools to not only trace the origins of our present, but to also imagine better futures. It is required reading for those of us invested in the preservation and strengthening of our democracy in uncertain times.
As a political historian of the twentieth-century United States, I dive into archives across the country to better understand the evolution of the nation's electoral process and the ongoing challenges it has faced over the decades. My research agenda is especially concerned with questions regarding the intersection of identity and democracy including such topics as partisan polarization, coalition building, social movements, and the political representation of historically marginalized groups.
My first book project is a history of what we call “identity politics,” exploring over a century of presidential campaigns and the increasingly central role of identity-based appeals in the American party system. From the construction of monolithic voting blocs such as the women’s vote in the early 1900s to the realignments behind the Reagan Revolution, this project reveals how race, ethnicity, gender, religion, and other categories fundamentally structured both major parties’ strategies and evolution.
At Berkeley, my approach to teaching courses such as History 124B: United States History from World War II to the Present and smaller seminars on U.S. political history reflects this broad field of inquiry. Additionally, I serve as co-director of the American Political History Seminar, which invites scholars of political history to share their recently published works with our intellectual community.
California is the first place I ever called home. I was born and raised in Fresno, the urban-agricultural heart of California’s Central Valley. I am proud to be a first-generation American, the son of Mexican immigrants, and the first person in my family to attend college and graduate school.
Education
Ph.D., History, Princeton University
M.A., History, Princeton University
B.A., History, University of Chicago
Academic Appointments
UC Berkeley
Assistant Professor of History, 2025-Present
Harvard University
Junior Fellow, Society of Fellows, 2022-2025
Affiliate, Center for American Political Studies, 2022-2025
Research Interests
American Presidency
Cities
Democracy
Elections
Identity
Political Parties
Race & Ethnicity
Social Movements
Representative Publications
Select Grants and Fellowships
William F. Milton Fund, Harvard University
President’s Fund for Emerging Historians, Organization of American Historians
Ford Foundation Predoctoral Fellowship, National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine
Harry Middleton Fellowship in Presidential Studies, Lyndon Baines Johnson Foundation
History of American Democracy Fellowship, The Tobin Project
Mellon Mays Undergraduate Fellowship, Andrew W. Mellon Foundation
