Dolores Huerta Announcement
We regret to inform the PTO Conference Community that Dolores Huerta will no longer be able to attend this year's conference. As we explained when we first posted information about Ms. Huerta's appearance with us, all of Ms. Huerta's conference and event appearances are subject to cancellation, due to her commitment to urgently needed legislative change. As you can imagine, especially with the recent injustices perpetrated by the legal system in Arizona, it is especially important for immigration rights' activists like Ms. Huerta to be flexible enough to shift their agendas to meet the demands of the moment. Ms. Huerta was very sorry to announce her cancellation, and wishes all of us well in our work for social justice.
We are very pleased, however, to announce that the keynote session slot to have been filled by Ms. Huerta will now be used to host an all-conference discussion entitled:
Flexing for Justice: An All-Conference Panel Discussion on Immigration Rights and Activism
We believe this panel will be the best way to both honor Ms. Huerta's work and discuss issues that are likely urgent for many of us in the PTO community, as well as many people in our host city and state. The panel will be moderated by John Mckiernan-Gonzalez of the University of Texas at Austin. We are still finalizing panelists, but we have had incredibly positive response from those we have contacted about being panelists, and we expect to be able to announce the full panel shortly. Many, many people here in Texas are eager to discuss how to respond to anti-immigration legislation, and PTO thinks it is important for the conference community to strategize together at this session.
About Panel Moderator John Mckiernan-Gonzalez
Research interests
Professor Mckiernan-González is fascinated by the intersection of public health, civil rights and transnational social movements. This variety of commitments translates into research on 19th and 20th popular mobilization and American public health policies at the Mexican border, race and cross-border labor politics, and Latino public history.
Courses taught
Professor Mckiernan-González teaches courses in Latino Social History, North American Borderlands, Health and Illness in North American History, Mexican American history, and the United States since 1865.
Awards/Honors
Rockefeller Postdoctoral Fellow, Center for Mexican American Studies and Lozano Long Institute of Latin American Studies, (2004-2005)
Rights, Recognition and Revolution: The United States Public Health Service and the Mexican Border, 1900-1930, Inaugural Hispanic American History Month Lecture, the National Library of Medicine, National Institute of Health,
"Camp Jenner and Other Field Trials: Black Exodus, Agricultural Labor and Federal Smallpox Therapy in the New South - Northern Mexico Borderlands, 1895," Distinguished Speaker Series in Ethnic Studies, University of California-San Diego, La Jolla, CA (2001)
Latino Graduate Student Fellowship, Smithsonian Institution (1997)
Rackham Merit Fellow, the University of Michigan - Ann Arbor
Distinguished Service Award, Eisenhower Middle School
Latino Faculty and Staff Association, the University of South Florida, (2005)