Cary Cordova
Ph.D., The University of Texas at Austin
Associate Professor

Contact
- E-mail: cordova@austin.utexas.edu
- Phone: 512-232-4582
- Office: BUR 418
- Office Hours: Spring 2022 Office Hours: Meetings via appointment and email while on leave from teaching.
- Campus Mail Code: B7100
Interests
American Studies, Latino Studies, Art History / Visual Culture, Urban Studies, and Ethnic Studies; the interconnectivity of art, politics, place, and public policy; Latina/o cultural production, including art, music, and the performing arts, and social movements
Biography
Cary Cordova is an Associate Professor in the Department of American Studies at The University of Texas at Austin. She specializes in Latina/o/x cultural production, including art, music, and the performing arts. She is the author of The Heart of the Mission: Latino Art and Politics in San Francisco (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2017), which provides a cultural history of Latino art and community formation in San Francisco's Mission District over the last half of the twentieth century. Her book received the 2018 Lawrence W. Levine Award from the Organization of American Historians for the best book in American cultural history. She also has published journal articles focusing on murals, children’s book art, poetry, and the avant-garde with Latino Studies and Visual Resources, and in books, such as Beyond el Barrio: Everyday Life in Latina/o America and Imperfections by Chance: Paul Feeley Retrospective, 1954-1966.
She is currently working on her second book project, Fiesta San Francisco: Imagining the Latin from Prohibition to World War II. This work excavates the lives of Latina/o/x artists, dancers, and entrepreneurs who worked in San Francisco during an earlier period of massive social change, encompassing the restrictions of Prohibition into the heightened consumption of ethnic identities through nightclubs and bars during World War II. Cordova is originally from San Francisco, where she has focused much of her research.
She also is serving as the lead historian for Proyecto Mission Murals, which is a multimedia documentary collaboration spearheaded by the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art to document and present the history of community murals in San Francisco’s Mission District.
At the University of Texas at Austin, she teaches various classes, including "Introduction to American Studies," "Latinidades," "Radical Latinos," and "American Disasters." She also has a courtesy appointment with the Center for Mexican American Studies (CMAS) and is a faculty affiliate with Mexican American and Latino/a Studies (MALS) and with the Teresa Lozano Long Institute of Latin American Studies (LLILAS). From 2019-2021, she served as the Associate Director of the Center for Mexican American Studies (CMAS) at UT Austin. She also has served as the Faculty Graduate Advisor for the Department of American Studies since 2019.
Previously, she taught at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, at Dickinson College in Carlisle, Pennsylvania, and at the University of California, Davis. She also has served as an archivist, curator, public historian, and oral historian for various public institutions, including the Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution, the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department, and the Harry Ransom Humanities Research Center.
Cordova earned her Ph.D. in American Studies from the University of Texas at Austin and received her B.A. in English from the University of California, Los Angeles.
Courses
AMS 310 • Intro To American Studies
31500 • Fall 2022
Meets TTH 2:00PM-3:30PM BEL 328
CD
HI
AMS 393 • Intro Readings In Amer Studies
31680 • Fall 2022
Meets M 10:00AM-1:00PM BUR 436A
AMS 370 • Latinidades: Art/Perfrmance-Wb
31600 • Spring 2021
Meets TTH 2:00PM-3:30PM
Internet; Synchronous
IIWr
AMS 393 • Intro Rdgs In Amer Studies-Wb
30680 • Fall 2020
Meets T 1:00PM-4:00PM
Internet; Synchronous
AMS 393 • Intro Readings In Amer Studies
30681 • Fall 2020
Meets T 1:00PM-4:00PM BUR 436A
Hybrid/Blended
AMS 398T • Supv Teaching In American Stds
31265 • Spring 2020
Meets W 1:00PM-4:00PM BUR 436B
AMS 370 • Radical Latinos
30610 • Fall 2019
Meets TTH 2:00PM-3:30PM BUR 436A
CDIIWr
(also listed as MAS 374)
AMS 393 • Intro Readings In Amer Studies
30695 • Fall 2019
Meets W 1:00PM-4:00PM BUR 436B
AMS 390 • Landmarks In Ethnic Studies
31200 • Spring 2019
Meets W 1:00PM-4:00PM BUR 436B
AMS 310 • Intro To American Studies
31090 • Fall 2018
Meets TTH 9:30AM-11:00AM ART 1.102
CD
HI
(also listed as HIS 315G)
AMS 370 • American Disasters
31240 • Fall 2018
Meets TTH 2:00PM-3:30PM BUR 436A
IIWr
AMS 310 • Intro To American Studies
30805 • Fall 2017
Meets TTH 2:00PM-3:30PM GAR 0.102
CD
HI
(also listed as HIS 315G)
AMS 310 • Intro To American Studies
30660 • Spring 2017
Meets MWF 10:00AM-11:00AM GAR 0.102
CD
HI
(also listed as HIS 315G)
AMS 390 • Latinidades
30850 • Spring 2017
Meets M 2:00PM-5:00PM BUR 436B
(also listed as MAS 392)
AMS 310 • Intro To American Studies
29775 • Spring 2016
Meets TTH 9:30AM-11:00AM MEZ 1.306
CD
(also listed as HIS 315G)
MAS 374 • Radical Latinos
35325 • Spring 2016
Meets TTH 12:30PM-2:00PM BUR 436A
CDIIWr
AMS 370 • American Disasters
30080 • Fall 2015
Meets TTH 9:30AM-11:00AM BUR 436A
IIWr
AMS 390 • Landmarks In Ethnic Studies
30104 • Fall 2015
Meets TH 2:00PM-5:00PM BUR 436B
AMS 310 • Intro To American Studies
30055 • Spring 2015
Meets MW 3:00PM-4:30PM MEZ 1.306
CD
AMS 390 • Latinidades
30225 • Spring 2015
Meets M 10:00AM-1:00PM BUR 436B
(also listed as MAS 392)
AMS 370 • American Disasters
31010 • Fall 2014
Meets TTH 3:30PM-5:00PM BUR 228
Wr
AMS 370 • Radical Latinos
31025 • Fall 2014
Meets TTH 12:30PM-2:00PM BUR 228
Wr
(also listed as MAS 374)
AMS 310 • Intro To American Studies
31060 • Spring 2014
Meets MWF 1:00PM-2:00PM GAR 0.102
CD
HI
(also listed as HIS 315G)
AMS 370 • American Disasters
30870 • Fall 2013
Meets TTH 9:30AM-11:00AM BUR 228
CDWr
AMS 370 • Radical Latinos
30880 • Fall 2013
Meets TTH 12:30PM-2:00PM BUR 228
Wr
(also listed as MAS 374)
AMS 310 • Intro To American Studies
30575 • Fall 2012
Meets MWF 10:00AM-11:00AM GAR 0.102
CD
HI
(also listed as HIS 315G)
AMS 390 • Reframing Visual Culture
30757 • Fall 2012
Meets W 2:00PM-5:00PM BUR 436B
(also listed as MAS 392)
AMS 370 • American Disasters
30850 • Spring 2012
Meets TTH 11:00AM-12:30PM BUR 228
CDWr
AMS 370 • Radical Latinos
30855 • Spring 2012
Meets TTH 3:30PM-5:00PM GAR 0.120
Wr
(also listed as MAS 374)
AMS 310 • Intro To American Studies
30485 • Fall 2011
Meets MWF 9:00AM-10:00AM JES A121A
CD
HI
(also listed as HIS 315G)
AMS 370 • American Disasters
30610 • Fall 2011
Meets MWF 11:00AM-12:00PM BUR 228
CDWr
AMS S370 • Radical Latinos
81740 • Summer 2011
Meets MTWTHF 11:30AM-1:00PM GEA 114
Wr
(also listed as MAS S374)
AMS 310 • Intro To American Studies
30730 • Spring 2011
Meets MWF 12:00PM-1:00PM WEL 1.308
CD
HI
(also listed as HIS 315G)
AMS 370 • American Disasters
30880 • Spring 2011
Meets MWF 2:00PM-3:00PM CMA A3.112
CDWr
AMS 310 • Intro To American Studies
29490 • Fall 2010
Meets MWF 10:00AM-11:00AM GSB 2.124
CD
HI
(also listed as HIS 315G)
AMS 390 • Latinidades
29695 • Fall 2010
Meets TH 10:00AM-1:00PM BUR 436B
AMS 370 • Mexican Amer Cul Studies Smnr
29825 • Spring 2010
Meets TTH 3:30PM-5:00PM BUR 228
(also listed as MAS 361)
AMS 315 • Latino Usa: Art/Cul/Identity-W
26185 • Spring 2004
Meets TTH 9:30AM-11:00AM WEL 3.402
C1
(also listed as MAS 319)
AMS 315 • Latino Usa: Art/Cul/Identity-W
26190 • Spring 2004
Meets TTH 12:30PM-2:00PM GEA 114
C1
(also listed as MAS 319)
AMS 315 • Latino Usa: Art, Cul, Ident-W
26320 • Fall 2003
Meets TTH 2:00PM-3:30PM BUR 216
C1
Publications
Book
The Heart of the Mission: Latino Art and Politics in San Francisco. Philadelphia, PA: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2017.
Articles
“Portable Murals: Children’s Book Press and the Circulation of Latino Art.” Visual Resources: An International Journal of Images and Their Uses. Online: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/01973762.2017.1277096, May 26, 2017; in print, Volume 33 (3-4), September-December 2017.
"The Mission in Nicaragua: San Francisco Poets go to War," in Beyond El Barrio: Everyday Life in Latina/o America, eds., Adrian Burgos, Jr., Frank Guridy, and Gina M. Pérez, New York University Press (forthcoming, Fall 2010).
"Tracing a Life: A Feeley Chronology.” In Douglas Dreishpoon, ed., Imperfections by Chance: Paul Feeley Retrospective, 1954-1966. London: D Giles Limited. 233-246.
“Hombres y Mujeres Muralistas on a Mission: Painting Latino Identities in 1970s San Francisco,” Latino Studies, Houndmills: Winter 2006, Vol. 4, Issue 4, 356-38.