Maria Cristina Garcia 
Howard A. Newman Professor of American Studies
Office: 455 McGraw Hall
Phone: (607) 255-6598
Fax: (607) 255-0469
E-Mail: mcg20@cornell.edu
Office Hours: by appointment
Research and Teaching Interests
I study refugees, immigrants, exiles, and transnationals in the Americas. My first book, Havana USA, examined the migration of Cubans to the United States after Fidel Castro took power in 1959. The book examines how these Cold war migrants--the beneficiaries of one of the most generous immigration policies and assistance programs in US immigration history--became a powerful economic and political presence in the United States, influencing foreign policy and electoral outcomes, reshaping the cultural landscape of the South, and ultimately reinterpreting what it means to assimilate in U.S. society.
My second book, Seeking Refuge, is a study of the individuals, groups, and organizations that responded to the Central American refugee crisis of the 1980s and 1990s, and helped shape refugee policies throughout North America. Collectively these domestic and transnational advocacy networks collected testimonies, documented the abuses of states, re-framed national debates about immigration, pressured for changes in policy, and ultimately provided a voice for the displaced and the excluded.
I am currently completing a new book project, a study of refugee and asylum policy in the United States since the end of the Cold War.
Many of my undergraduate courses reflect these research interests (see my list of course offerings below) and are cross-listed with American Studies, Latino Studies, and occasionally, Latin American Studies. While I consider myself primarily a historian of 20th century U.S. history, my interest in mobile populations has increasingly blurred the geographic borders of my work.
Courses
| Fall 2011: | HIST 1800 |
Immigration in U.S. History |
|---|---|---|
| Spring 2012: | HIST 6080 |
Readings in 20th Century U.S. History Syllabus |
Other Courses Taught at Cornell
Refugees
Immigration since 1965 (Service-learning course)
The US-Mexico Border: History, Culture, and Representation
US-Cuba Relations
Introduction to Latino History: Colonial period to 1898
Introduction to Latino History: 1898 to the present
Immigration in U.S. History
Latino America
Education
Ph.D University of Texas, Austin, 1990
M.A. University of Texas, Austin, 1984
B.A. Georgetown University, 1982
Recent Publications
Books
Seeking Refuge: Central American Immigration to Mexico, the United States, and Canada (University of California Press, 2006)
Havana USA: Cuban Exiles and Cuban Americans in South Florida, 1959-1994 (University of California Press, 1996)
Articles and Book Chapters
“Central American migration and the shaping of refugee policy” in Migrants and Migration in Modern North America: Cross-Border Lives, Labor Markets, and Politics in Canada, the Caribbean, Mexico, and the United States. Dirk Hoerder and Nora Faires, eds., Duke University Press, 2012.“Latino Interchange,” Journal of American History (September 2010), Vol. 97, no. 2. pp. 424-464.
“Latin American Populations in the United States,” Encyclopedia of Latin American History (20,000 word entry), Gale Press, 2008.
"Refugees or Economic Immigrants? The Politics of US Refugee Policy and Immigration from Latin America" in A Companion to Latino Studies. Juan Flores and Renato Rosaldo, eds. Blackwell Press, 2007.
"Canada: a Northern Refuge for Central Americans,” Migration Information Source (Washington, DC: Migration Policy Institute, April 2006), www.migrationinformation.org.
“Dangerous times call for risky responses’: Latino Immigration and Sanctuary, 1981-2001,” in Latino Religions and Civic Activism in American Public Life. Gastón Espinosa, Virgilio Elizondo, and Jesse Miranda, eds. Oxford University Press, 2004.
“Exiles, Immigrants, and Transnationals: Cubans in the United States,” in The Columbia Anthology of Latino History. David G. Gutierrez, ed., Columbia University Press, 2004.
“Cuban American Prose, 1975-2000” in Mario Valdés, ed., Latin American Literary History Oxford University Press, 2004.
“Havana USA” in Latino/a Thought: Culture Politics, and Society. Francisco H. Vázquez and Rodolfo D. Torres, eds., Rowman and Littlefield, 2003.
Awards, Grants and Fellowships
Stephen and Margery Russell Distinguished Teaching Award, College of Arts and Sciences, 2011.Radcliffe Institute, 2005-2006 (declined)
Fellow, Society for the Humanities, Cornell University, Fall 2000.
Canadian Studies Research Grant, 1999.
George Bush Center for Presidential Studies Research Grant, Fall 1997.
Louisville Institute Research Grant, Summer 1997.
Abba P. Schwartz Research Fellowship for Immigration Studies, John F. Kennedy Foundation, 1993.
Research Grant, John F. Kennedy Foundation, 1992.
Fulbright, United Kingdom, 1991-92.
Links
Joint appointments:
Latino Studies Program
Teaching affiliations with:
American Studies Program
Latin American Studies Program