Secondary Title

Assistant Professor, History

Biography

Carlos R. Hernández joined the faculty of Wayne State University in Fall 2022 as an Assistant Professor of History with a joint appointment in the Center for Latino/a and Latin American Studies. He previously served as the A. Kenneth Pye Visiting Assistant Professor of History at Southern Methodist University (SMU). Hernández earned his Ph.D. in History from Yale University in Spring 2020. He also holds an M.A. in History from the University of Florida and a B.A. in Political Science and English from Texas A&M University.

A bilingual and binational scholar, Hernández maintains strong personal and professional ties to Mexico. He formerly served as the Joseph C. Fox Visiting Research Fellow at El Colegio de México in Mexico City, where he completed much of the research for his current book project, Paradise Lost: Beach Tourism, the Mexican State, and the Making of Cancún. Drawing on over a dozen Mexican national and regional archives, and nearly forty oral interviews, the manuscript argues that the development of touristic sites such as Cancún enabled developing countries such as Mexico to engage in large-scale forms of privatization after decades of state-led development. The book further demonstrates that this project came at the expense of Mexican workers, particularly women and local Yucatec Maya communities, inviting readers to reconsider their scholarly and popular assumptions about Mexican nationalism, development, and tourism.

Hernández is broadly interested in developing new approaches to Mexican nationalism and the Mexican state. His published scholarship has appeared in the Latin American Research Review, with future work in progress for The Americas and other flagship journals. He is also completing preliminary research for his next book project, Why Mexico Matters. The emerging monograph argues for the analytical significance of Mexican historiography (known in Mexico as historia patria) in contemporary debates about political economy, international relations, and migratory policies on both sides of the U.S.-Mexico border. It reorients the practice of public history toward these axes, reexamines the formation of Mexican Studies as a disproportionately Anglophone field, and provides a critical rereading of both the Mexican and Mexicanist historical canons.

In addition to maintaining an active research agenda, Hernández is committed to diversifying and expanding access to higher education through active under/graduate mentoring. His former advisees have won major fellowships, including the US Rhodes and McNair. He has also helped them secure competitive internships with public leaders such Earl Anthony Wayne, President Obama’s Ambassador to Mexico. As a core member of the Center for Latino/a and Latin American Studies, Hernández welcomes queries from students and community members interested in Latin America and its diaspora.

Research interest(s)/area of expertise

• Mexico, Latin America, and the Caribbean
• Tourism, labor, and development
• Nationalism and cultural history
• US Latinx Studies

Research

Hernández is currently completing his first scholarly monograph, Paradise Lost: Beach Tourism, the Mexican State, and the Making of Cancún.

Education – Degrees, Licenses, Certifications

Ph.D., History, Yale University M.A., History, University of Florida B.A., Political Science and English, Texas A&M University

Awards and grants

• Faculty Fellow at the Wayne State Humanities Center, AY 2024-25
• CLAS Grant Writing Workshop in the Humanities & Social Sciences (nominated by History Chair), Fall 2023
• Chronicle of Higher Education Bootcamp for Future Faculty Leaders (nominated by OVPR), Fall 2023
• University Research Grant, Wayne State University, Summer 2023
• SMU Hope Teaching Award (nominated by students), Winter 2022
• Joseph C. Fox Visiting Research Fellow, El Colegio de México, AY 2017-18
• MacMillan International Dissertation Research Fellowship, AY 2017-18
• Yale Center for the Study of Race, Indigeneity, and Transnational Migration (RITM) Research Grant, Winter 2017

Selected publications

Currently Teaching

• LAS 1900/HIS 1900: Colonial Latin America
• LAS 3000/HIS 3995: Revolutionary Movements in Latin America

Courses taught

• Mexico (grad & undergrad formats)
• Modern Latin America
• Undergrad Research Seminar on Latin America
• Grad Seminar on the Latin American Cold War
• Grad Research Methods & Writing Seminar