Assistant Professor, Latina/Latino Studies
John Mckiernan-Gonzalez graduated from Oberlin College with degrees in Art History and Latin American Studies, both of which clearly prepared him for work as an epidemiologist in Cook County. He completed his Ph.D at the University of Michigan, despite his work at the Smithsonian Institution and the National Museum of American History on a variety of Latino-themed exhibits and projects and his involvement in folclorico.
He is fascinated by the ways public health policies and civil rights demands intersect with and collide with transnational social movements. Since high school he has worked with the Student Coalition for Community Health in Lowndes County, the VD division of the Cook County Department of Public Health and as an incredibly minor consultant for the National Minority AIDS Council. He translated this variety of interests into research on 19th and 20th popular mobilization and American public health policies at the Mexican border. One of the fruits of his research, the monograph, Fevered Measures: Connecting Public Health and Race at the Mexican Border, 1848-1942, is under contract at Duke University Press. His next project, Black Odysseys, American Borders, traces how the Comarca Lagunera (Mexico) also participated in the national politics of labor and citizenship in the United States. John Mckiernan-Gonzalez still maintains an interest in Latino public history. | 
