Enrique Dávila, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor
History
Courses Taught
United States History, 1865 to Present; United States Latinos: Origins and Histories; Origins of the Modern World Since 1500.
Education
Ph.D., University of Chicago 2021
M.A., University of Chicago, 2011
B.A., University of Texas, 2006
Research Interests
Enrique Dávila is a historian of Mexican American, Latino, and Borderlands history. His research explores reform movements in the U.S.-Mexico borderlands in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century. He is particularly interested in the way border people harnessed their knowledge of two nation-states, languages, and cultures to pursue equality, dignity, and unity in a newly transformed and globalized border region. He is currently at work on his first book project, Idar: The First Family of Mexican America, a collective family biography that traces three generations of activism launched by one family—the Idars of Laredo, Texas. The family’s history provides a window into the transnational reform networks created in response to political revolt in South Texas, revolution in Mexico, and economic transformations by international capital in both countries. A native of Texas, he was born in McAllen, raised in Houston, and earned his B.A. at the University of Texas at Austin.
Publications and Media Placements
Co-Authored
“Mapping the Strange Career of William Ellis,” Ethnic Studies Educators’ Academy 2022 Teaching Guide, UTSA Democratizing Racial Justice (2023, forthcoming).
Honors and Awards
- Carlos E. Castañeda Postdoctoral Fellow, University of Texas at Austin, 2021
- Ph.D. Fellowship, Social Sciences Dissertation, University of Chicago, 2020
- Institute for Latino Studies’ Early Scholars Symposium, University of Notre Dame, 2018
- Benson Latin American Collection Research Fellowship, University of Texas at Austin, 2017
- Orin Williams Award, University of Chicago, 2017
- Freehling Archival Grant, University of Chicago, 2017