John Morán González
Professor — Ph.D., Stanford University
J. Frank Dobie Regents Professor of American & English Literature

Contact
- E-mail: jmgonzal@utexas.edu
- Phone: 512-471-8117
- Office: PAR 321
- Campus Mail Code: B5000
Interests
Latino/a literature; Chicano/a literature; late nineteenth-century American literature; narrative theory; postcolonial studies.
Biography
From the border town of Brownsville, Texas, John Morán González is the J. Frank Dobie Regents Professor of American and English Literature at the University of Texas at Austin. He attended Princeton University, graduating magna cum laude with an A.B. in English literature in 1988. At Stanford University, he earned an M.A. degree in 1991, and a Ph.D. in 1998, both in English and American literature. He currently serves as Director of the Center for Mexican American Studies and on the Advisory Board of the Recovering the U.S. Hispanic Literary Heritage Project. He has published in journals such as American Literature, American Literary History, Aztlán: A Journal of Chicano Studies, Western American Literature, and Nineteenth-Century Contexts, and Symbolism. He is the author of two books: Border Renaissance: The Texas Centennial and the Emergence of Mexican-American Literature (2009), and The Troubled Union: Expansionist Imperatives in Post-Reconstruction American Novels (2010). He is editor of The Cambridge Companion to Latina/o American Literature (2016). He is co-editor (with Laura Lomas) of The Cambridge History of Latina/o American Literature (2018), which was selected as a 2018 CHOICE Outstanding Academic Title. In addition, he is a founding member of Refusing to Forget, a public history project dedicated to critically memorializing state violence in the South Texas borderlands, 1910-1920. He currently sits on the Board of Directors of Humanities Texas.
Courses
E 342M • Life/Lit Us-Mex Borderlands-Wb
34920 • Fall 2020
Meets TTH 9:30AM-11:00AM
Internet; Synchronous
CDWr
(also listed as MAS 345D)
T C 358 • Upwrd Socioecon Mblty In Us-Wb
41168 • Fall 2020
Meets TTH 12:30PM-2:00PM
Internet; Synchronous
E 395M • Latina/O Narrtv, Its Future
35865 • Spring 2019
Meets TH 2:00PM-5:00PM CAL 323
(also listed as MAS 392)
E 316M • American Literature
34710-34755 • Spring 2018
Meets TTH 2:00PM-3:30PM BEL 328
CD
HU
UGS 302 • Immigration And American Dream
62095 • Fall 2017
Meets TTH 9:30AM-11:00AM MAI 220F
CDWr
ID
E 338 • Amer Lit: From 1865 To Present
35385 • Spring 2017
Meets TTH 9:30AM-11:00AM PAR 208
CD
UGS 302 • Immigration And American Dream
61990 • Fall 2016
Meets TTH 9:30AM-11:00AM PAR 302
CDWr
ID
E S338 • Amer Lit: From 1865 To Present
82100 • Summer 2016
Meets MTWTHF 10:00AM-11:30AM PAR 206
CD
UGS 302 • Immigration & American Dream
61500 • Spring 2016
Meets TTH 12:30PM-2:00PM BEN 1.124
CDWr
E 379R • Latina/O Novels: Amer Dreams
34700 • Fall 2015
Meets TTH 2:00PM-3:30PM PAR 308
CDIIWr
(also listed as MAS 374)
E 395M • Contemp Latina/Latino Narratvs
34820 • Fall 2015
Meets TTH 9:30AM-11:00AM PAR 305
(also listed as MAS 392)
E S316M • American Literature
82730 • Summer 2015
Meets MTWTHF 11:30AM-1:00PM PAR 301
CD
E 338 • Amer Lit: From 1865 To Present
34705 • Spring 2015
Meets TTH 9:30AM-11:00AM PAR 303
CD
E 376M • Amer Dream In Comp Context
34925 • Spring 2015
Meets TTH 2:00PM-3:30PM MEZ 2.122
CDWr
E 316M • American Literature
35550-35595 • Fall 2014
Meets TTH 2:00PM-3:30PM WCH 1.120
CD
UGS 302 • Immigration & American Dream
63965 • Fall 2014
Meets TTH 9:30AM-11:00AM MAI 220F
CDWr
ID
E F316K • Masterworks Of Lit: American
83145 • Summer 2014
Meets MTWTHF 2:30PM-4:00PM PAR 105
HU
E 338 • Amer Lit: From 1865 To Present
35955 • Spring 2014
Meets TTH 9:30AM-11:00AM PAR 303
E 372M • American Realism
36175 • Spring 2014
Meets TTH 2:00PM-3:30PM PAR 203
Wr
E 376M • Amer Dream Comp Contexts-Hon
35950 • Fall 2013
Meets TTH 12:30PM-2:00PM CAL 323
CDWr
(also listed as LAH 350)
E 395M • Contemp Latina/Latino Narratvs
36185 • Fall 2013
Meets TTH 9:30AM-11:00AM MEZ 1.104
E 338 • Amer Lit: From 1865 To Present
35425 • Spring 2013
Meets TTH 9:30AM-11:00AM GAR 2.128
E 379R • Latina/O Novels: Amer Dreams
35725 • Spring 2013
Meets TTH 12:30PM-2:00PM PAR 302
CDIIWr
(also listed as MAS 374)
E 349S • James And Wharton
35480 • Fall 2012
Meets TTH 11:00AM-12:30PM MEZ 2.202
Wr
E 395M • Bordrlnds Narratvs: The 1st-C
35880 • Fall 2012
Meets TTH 2:00PM-3:30PM BEN 1.118
E S316K • Masterworks Of Lit: American
83825 • Summer 2012
Meets MTWTHF 11:30AM-1:00PM FAC 21
HU
E S372M • American Realism
83830 • Summer 2011
Meets MTWTHF 1:00PM-2:30PM PAR 105
E 379R • Latina/O Novels: Amer Dreams
35845 • Spring 2011
Meets TTH 9:30AM-11:00AM PAR 302
CDIIWr
E 395M • Contemp Latina/Latino Narratvs
36020 • Spring 2011
Meets TTH 2:00PM-3:30PM MEZ 1.104
E 372M • American Realism
34860 • Fall 2010
Meets TTH 11:00AM-12:30PM MEZ 1.102
Wr
C2
E F372M • American Realism
83115 • Summer 2010
Meets MTWTHF 11:30AM-1:00PM PAR 306
E 316K • Masterworks Of Lit: American
34315-34350 • Spring 2010
Meets MWF 9:00AM-10:00AM FAC 21
HU
E 372M • American Realism-W
34987 • Spring 2010
Meets MWF 10:00AM-11:00AM GAR 1.126
C2
E 379N • Mexican American Modernism-W
35306 • Fall 2009
Meets TTH 3:30PM-5:00PM PAR 204
C2
MAS 392 • Early Mexican American Lit
36285 • Fall 2009
Meets TTH 11:00AM-12:30PM PAR 204
MAS 314 • Mexican American Lit & Cul-W
35355 • Spring 2009
Meets TTH 11:00AM-12:30PM PAR 204
C1
MAS 314 • Mexican American Lit & Cul-W
36800 • Fall 2007
Meets MWF 12:00PM-1:00PM PAR 306
C1
MAS 314 • Mexican American Lit & Cul-W
36335 • Fall 2006
Meets TTH 11:00AM-12:30PM PAR 308
C1
MAS 314 • Mexican Amer Lit & Culture-W
31925 • Spring 2004
Meets TTH 3:30PM-5:00PM PAR 208
C1
MAS 314 • Mexican Amer Lit And Culture
31625 • Spring 2003
Meets TTH 12:30PM-2:00PM PAR 303
MAS 314 • Mexican Amer Lit And Culture
32032 • Fall 2002
Meets TTH 3:30PM-5:00PM BAT 106
Publications
Books
- The Troubled Union: Expansionist Imperatives in Post-Reconstruction American Novels. Columbus: The Ohio State University Press, 2010. 146 pp + ix.
- Border Renaissance: The Texas Centennial and the Emergence of Mexican American Literature. Austin: University of Texas Press, 2009. 275 pp + xiv.
Edited Books
- Co-editor (with Laura Lomas). The Cambridge History of Latina/o American Literature. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2018. 819pp + xxxvi. Recognized as a 2018 CHOICE Outstanding Academic Title.
- The Cambridge Companion to Latina/o American Literature. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2016. 280pp + xxxv.
Sections of Books
- With Laura Lomas. “Introduction.” The Cambridge History of Latina/o American Literature. John Morán González and Laura Lomas. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2018: 1-30.
- “Latina/o Literature: An Introduction.” The Cambridge Companion to Latina/o American Literature. John Morán González. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2016: xxiii-xxxv.
- “Between Ethnic Americans and Racial Subjects: Latina/o Literature, 1936-1959.” The Cambridge Companion to Latina/o American Literature. John Morán González. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2016: 36-53.
- “Trying to get the accents right”: Censorship, Exile, and Linguistic Difference in Julia Alvarez’s How the García Girls Lost Their Accents.” In Censorship and Exile. Johanna Hartmann and Hubert Zapf. Internationale Schriften des Jakob Fugger-Zentrum an der Universität Augsburg. (Göttingen: V&R unipress, 2015): 209-220.
- “The Whiteness of the Blush: The Cultural Politics of Racial Formation in María Amparo Ruiz de Burton’s The Squatter and the Don.” In María Amparo Ruiz de Burton: Critical and Pedagogical Perspectives. Anne Goldman and Amelia Montes. (Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 2004): 153-168.
- Terms of Engagement: Nation or Patriarchy in Jovita González’s and Eve Raleigh’s ” In Recovering the U.S. Hispanic Literary Heritage, Vol. 4. Eds. José Aranda and Silvio Torres-Saillant. (Houston: Arte Público Press, 2002): 264-276.
- “Romancing Hegemony: Constructing Racialized Citizenship in María Amparo Ruiz de Burton’s The Squatter and the Don.” In Recovering the U.S. Hispanic Literary Heritage, Vol. 2. Erlinda Gonzales-Berry and Chuck Tatum. (Houston: Arte Público Press, 1996): 23-39.
Articles & Review Essays
- With Patricia M. García. “Introduction: Latina/o Literature at the Crossroads: The Trans-American and the Trans-Atlantic in Critical Dialogue.” Symbolism: An International Annual of Critical Aesthetics. 17: 3-10. 2017.
- “Páginas en blanco, Footnotes, and the Authority of the Archive in Junot Díaz’s The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao.” Symbolism: An International Annual of Critical Aesthetics. 15: 59-72. 2015.
- “Transnational Field Imaginaries and the Transformation of Chicana/o Literary Studies.” American Literary History. 26.3: 592-602. 2014.
- “Aztlán @ 50: Chican@ Literary Studies for the Next Decade.” Aztlán: A Journal of Chicano Studies. 35.2: 173-176. 2010.
- “The Warp of Whiteness: Domesticity and Empire in Helen Hunt Jackson’s Ramona.” American Literary History3: 437-465. 2004.
- “Interpreting California and ‘the West’.” Western American Literature 34:2: 186-191. 1999.
Edited Journal Issues
- Guest Co-editor (with Patricia M. García). Symbolism: An International Annual of Critical Aesthetics. Special focus: “Latina/o Literature at the Crossroads: The Trans-American and The Trans-Atlantic in Critical Dialogue.” Volume 17 (2017).
Reviews
- Review of Bridges, Borders, Breaks: History, Narrative, and Nation in Twenty-First-Century Chicana/o Literary Criticism, edited by William Orchard and Yolanda Padilla. The ALH Online Review. Series XIII. Published online November 7, 2017: https://academic.oup.com/DocumentLibrary/ALH/Online Review Series 13/XIIIJohn Gonzalez.pdf
- Review of How Myth Became History: Texas Exceptionalism in the Borderlands by John E. Dean. Western Historical Quarterly. 48:1 (Spring 2017): 73. Published online June 19, 2016. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/whq/whw093.
- Review of Spiritual Mestizaje: Religion, Gender, Race, and Nation in Contemporary Chicana Narrative by Theresa Delgadillo and Hispanic Immigrant Literature: El sueño del retorno by Nicolás Kanellos. American Literature 84:2 (June 2012): 459-61.
- Review of Chicano Novels and the Politics of Form: Race, Class and Reification by Marcial González and Translating Empire: José Martí, Migrant Latino Subjects, and American Modernities by Laura Lomas. American Literature 82:2 (June 2010): 430-32.
- Review of Life Along the Border: A Landmark Tejana Thesis by Jovita González Mireles, ed. María E. Cotera. E3W Review of Books 1:7 (Spring 2007): 58-60.
- Review of Ambassadors of Culture: The Transamerican Origins of Latino Writing, by Kirsten Silva Gruesz. Nineteenth-Century Contexts 28:1 (2006): 80-82.
- Review of When We Arrive: A New Literary History of Mexican America, by José F. Aranda. Western American Literature 39:2 (2004): 244-245.
- Review of Lights Out in the Reptile House, by Jim Shepard. 1991 Science Fiction and Fantasy Book Review Annual. Rob Latham and Robert A. Collins (Westport, CT: Greenwood, 1994): 513-514.
Interviews
- Rolando Hinojosa-Smith and Dagoberto Gilb interviewed by John M. González. Austin Review of Books (October 31, 2007): 4-5.
- Public Opinion Essays
- “When Obituaries Share Our Grief and Convey Our Rage.” Opinion essay. Austin American-Statesman. August 23, 2020. A23, print. Available online at https://www.statesman.com/opinion/20200821/opinion-when-obituaries-share-our-grief-and-convey-our-rage
- “Removing Ranger Statue Acknowledges Brutal Past.” Opinion essay. Austin American-Statesman. June 10, 2020. A13, print. Available online at https://www.statesman.com/opinion/20200609/opinion-removing-rangers-statue-acknowledges-their-brutal-past
- “Four Ways the Latinx Community Can Reclaim Its Power.” With Michelle Herrera Mulligan. Opinion essay. Latina. September 25, 2017. Available online at http://latina.com/lifestyle/politics/op-ed-4-ways-latinx-community-can-reclaim-its-power
- “Mexican-Americans feel a resolve similar to 1862.” Opinion essay. Austin American-Statesman. May 5, 2017. A15, print. Available online as “Cinco de Mayo in the days of sanctuary city bills” at https://www.apnews.com/db617e30eb074b3eaf18df5ef8366425.
Acquired by the Associated Press and republished in the Corpus Christi Caller-Times, Houston Chronicle, Rio Grande Guardian, San Antonio Express-News, Waco Tribune-Herald and USA Today.
- “Texas must acknowledge ugly past, not just heroes.” Opinion essay. Austin American-Statesman. Published March 6, 2016. E4, print. Available online as “González: Refusing to Forget Any of Texas’s History” at https://www.statesman.com/news/20160904/gonzlez-refusing-to-forget-any-of-texas-history. Translated into Spanish and published in ¡AhoraSí! as “Me rehúso a olvidar la historia de Texas.” Available online at https://www.statesman.com/news/20160816/me-rehso-a-olvidar-la-historia-de-texas
- “Personal Reflections on ‘Life and Death on the Border, 1910-1920.’” Entry for the Texas Story Project sponsored by the Bob Bullock Texas State History Museum. January 28, 2016. Available online at https://www.thestoryoftexas.com/discover/texas-story-project/life-death-border-john-moran-gonzalez
Major Exhibitions
- Major Consultant. “Life and Death on the Border, 1910-1920.” The Bob Bullock Texas State History Museum. Austin, Texas. January 23-April 3, 2016. Served in a major consulting and curatorial role in the proposal and development of a special exhibit viewed by over 40,000 visitors. Winner of an Award of Merit in the Leadership in History Category given by the American Association for State and Local History.
Major Conferences
- Co-Organizer. “Reverberations of Memory, Violence, and History: The Centennial of the 1919 Canales Investigation.” Sponsored by the National Endowment for the Humanities. Bullock Texas State History Museum. Austin, Texas. January 30-February 1, 2019.
- Co-Organizer. “Central Americans and the Latina/o Landscape: Imaginative Reformulations and New Configurations of Latina/o America.” 2012 CMAS-LLILAS Conference. Sponsored by the Center for Mexican American Studies and the Lozano Long Institute for Latin American Studies. Austin, Texas. February 22-25, 2012.
WORK IN PROGRESS
Edited Critical Anthology
Reverberations of Racial Violence: Critical Reflections on Borderlands History. Co-edited with Sonia Hernández. University of Texas Press. Forthcoming June 2021.