Dr. Lori Flores

Biography

Lori Flores is an Associate Professor in the Department of History at Columbia University. She is a core faculty member at the Center for the Study of Ethnicity and Race. Her research and writing focus on Latino/x life, labor, and politics in the United States from the 1940s to the present. Her latest book, 'Awaiting Feast: Latinx Food Workers Activism from World War II to COVID-19,' published by UNC Press in 2025, explores the historical relationship between the U.S. consumer appetite for Latinx food and the labor of Latinx food workers across various industries. Recognized as the 'Book of the Year' by the International Labor History Association, this work follows her acclaimed previous publication, 'Grounds for Dreaming: Mexican Americans, Mexican Immigrants, and the California Farmworker Movement' (Yale University Press, 2016), which studies the struggles of Mexican Americans and bracero workers for civil rights and labor justice in California. Flores has received fellowships from several prestigious institutions, including the Russell Sage Foundation and the Rockefeller Foundation’s Bellagio Center. She has also been named a Distinguished Lecturer by the Organization of American Historians for 2023-2026. In her teaching, she is dedicated to training undergraduate and graduate students in Latino/x history and various topics including labor history, civil rights movements, and food history.

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Courses