Dr. Bernadette Pérez

Biography

Bernadette Pérez is a historian at the University of California, Berkeley, where she focuses on the histories of Latinx and Indigenous peoples in the United States. Her work exists at the intersection of multiple subfields including history, race, environment, labor, migration, and colonialism. Pérez’s current research investigates the experiences of migrant sugar beet workers in southeastern Colorado during the early twentieth century, revealing the intricate and unequal relationships among diverse working communities within a hierarchical land and labor regime. Her manuscript aims to uncover the intertwined histories of Indigenous, Mexican, Asian, and White peoples in the context of U.S. expansion, Indian removal, and systemic anti-Blackness. Through her book, she highlights the crucial role that the occupation, transformation, and control of land played in the evolution of racial capitalism in the post-Civil War United States. Prior to joining Berkeley, she was a Cotsen Postdoctoral Fellow in Race and Ethnicity Studies at Princeton University and has taught courses in History and American Studies. Pérez has received numerous fellowships and awards, including from the Mellon Foundation and the Organization of American Historians. In 2018, her dissertation earned the W. Turrentine Jackson Dissertation Award from the Pacific Coast Branch of the American Historical Association as well as the Outstanding Dissertation Award from the Immigration and Ethnic History Society.

Research Interests

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