Research Expertise and Interest
social change, historical sociology, political sociology, community studies, race & ethnic relations
Research Description
David Montejano is Professor of the Graduate School of the University of California, Berkeley. Previously he was Professor of Ethnic Studies and History and Chair of the Center for Latino Policy Research. He joined the Berkeley faculty in 2002. Before coming to Berkeley, he was an Associate Professor of History and Sociology and Director of the Center for Mexican American Studies at the University of Texas at Austin.
Professor Montejano’s major areas of interest include Comparative and Historical Sociology, Political Sociology, Social Change, Race and Ethnic Relations, and Community Studies. A native of San Antonio, Texas, he received a B.A. from the University of Texas at Austin and two Masters and a Ph.D. in Sociology from Yale University.
Professor Montejano is the author of the prizewinning historical overview, Anglos and Mexicans in the Making of Texas, 1836- 1986, published by the University of Texas Press in 1987. Among the recognition received were the Frederick Jackson Turner prize, awarded by the Organization of American Historians, for the best first book in American History, and the T. R. Fehrenbach prize, awarded by the Texas Historical Commission, for best book in Texas history. Anglos and Mexicans is now in its 14th Printing, and has been translated and published in Mexico (Mexico City: Editorial Alianza, 1991).
The sequel, titled Quixote’s Soldiers: A Local History of the Chicano Movement, 1966-1981, was published by the University of Texas Press in 2010. This book also received critical acclaim and awards, including the 2012 Book Award from the National Association for Chicana and Chicano Studies and, for the second time, the T. R. Fehrenbach prize in Texas History. Professor Montejano also authored a companion book to Quixote’s Soldiers, titled Sancho’s Journal: Exploring the Political Edge With the Brown Berets (University of Texas Press, 2012). With the publication of Sancho’s Journal, Montejano completed his Texas trilogy, bringing closure to a line of inquiry that was thirty-five years in the making.
Other writings include his edited volume, Chicano Politics and Society in the Late Twentieth Century (University of Texas Press, 1999) and essays in several books dealing with the Mexican American experience. He continues to write on both historical and contemporaneous topics, ranging from the American Civil War to the present political climate.
During his time in Texas, Dr. Montejano served on the Texas Commission on the Arts (1992-1998) as a Governor Ann Richards appointee. He was inducted into the Texas Institute of Letters in 1995. As Director of the Center for Mexican American Studies at the University of Texas, Dr. Montejano spearheaded several initiatives in higher education, including the design of the Texas Top Ten Percent admissions plan, which became state law in 1997. At the University of California, Berkeley, Dr. Montejano was instrumental in developing the Center for Latino Policy Research from a third-floor operation into the new Latinx Research Center with a three-story house. Recently, Dr. Montejano was a consultant for the PBS series on “Latino Americans.”