Gigi Peterson


Education:

Ph.D. Department of History, University of Washington. 1998.

  • Fields of specialization: Modern Latin America, Latinos in the United States, U.S. Foreign Policy, Modern Southeast Asia
  • Dissertation: “Grassroots Good Neighbors: Cross Border Connections between Mexican and U.S. Labor and Civil Rights Activists, 1936-45.”

M.A. Department of History. University of Washington. 1992.
Washington State Teaching Certificate. Secondary Level Social Studies. University of Washington. 1986.

B.A. Multifield Major in the Humanities. St. Lawrence University, Canton, NY. 1982.


Course Offerings:

HIS 402: History of Latin American-US Relations
HIS 422: History of US Latinos

History special topics courses taught at Cortland: US-Mexican Relations. Other courses in the works, and many will relate to past courses taught elsewhere
Past courses elsewhere: Survey of Latin American History; Modern Latin America; History of Central America; “Grassroots Good Neighbors”: Mexican-US Relations in the 1930s and 1940; Human Rights in Latin America; Cultures of Solidarity in US-Latin American Relations; Latin American-US Relations in History and Fiction

Team-teach AED 300: Pre-Student Teaching Seminar and supervise Adolescence Social Studies student teachers


Research Interests:

Current Project: “Linking Community and Transnational Activism: Attorney John Caughlan and Labor and Civil Rights Struggles in the Pacific Northwest”
Over four decades, Seattle labor attorney and civil rights activist John Caughlan took on cases and causes that shaped not only the history of the Pacific Northwest, but that of the rest of the United States and places as far-flung as Mexico and the Philippines. I examine his role in grassroots activism—including its cross-ethnic and transnational dimensions—in Seattle, an important West Coast city profoundly influenced by its Pacific Rim ties. Among the topics explored are “The Cost of Civil Rights,” as Caughlan and local organizations supported Filipino workers all the way to the Supreme Court, encountering local and federal repression as they did so.

Broad research interests: Labor, human and civil rights activism; US relations with Latin America at both the official and extra-official levels; left-wing political culture in the Americas


Selected Publications and Presentations:

Publications
Review of Eduardo Obregón Pagán, Murder at the Sleepy Lagoon: Zoot Suits, Race, and Riots in Wartime L.A. (University of North Carolina Press, 2003). In Peace and Change: A Journal of Peace Research. 30:4 (October 2005): 548-547.
“A Dangerous Demagogue: Containing the Influence of the Mexican Labor-Left and its U.S. Allies.” In William Issel, Robert Cherny, and Kiernan Taylor, eds. Labor and the Cold War at the Grassroots. Rutgers University Press, 2004.
“U.S.-Mexican Cross Border Solidarity: Labor Precedents from the 1930s,” Latin American Labor News 9 (1993-94): 9.
“North American Labor History Conference,” International Labor and Working Class History 52 (Fall 1997): 143-46. Conference Report for Eighteenth Annual North American Labor History Conference at Wayne State University, Detroit, MI. Co-authored with Kathleen Brown.

Sampling of conference presentations
“Recobrando/Recovering ‘The Struggle Against Racial Discrimination’: The Mural That Bridged Nations, Causes, and Decades.” Twenty-seventh Annual North American Labor History Conference. Wayne State University, Detroit, MI. Oct. 2005.
“Challenging Policy: Comparing Central America and Colombia Solidarity Movements in the U.S.” Panel presentation for Scholars Day. SUNY Cortland. April 2003.
“A Popular Front in Practice: Mexican and U.S. Activists Address Discrimination in Wartime Los Angeles.” Eighteenth Annual North American Labor History Conference. Wayne State University, Detroit, MI. Oct. 1996.
“Grassroots Good Neighbors: The Mexican Labor-Left’s Cross-Border Efforts, 1936-1945.” IX Southern Labor Studies Conference, “Labor and Free Trade.” University of Texas, Austin, TX. Sept. 1995.


Community Activities:

Member, Cortland-Ithaca chapter of PFLAG (Parents and Friends of Lesbians and Gays)