Pablo Mitchell, Associate Professor of History and Comparative American Studies

Pablo Mitchell, associate professor of history and comparative American studies, has been honored as an "Emerging Scholar of the Year." He is one of 10 professors in the nation receiving the award for 2008 from Diverse: Issues In Higher Education magazine. Scholars are recognized for their achievements in research, unique field of study, teaching and publication record, and recommendations from faculty. Mitchell is awarded for his groundbreaking work on Latino history.

"We look for someone extraordinary in terms of what they've accomplished in a short time," says Toni Coleman, associate editor for the magazine, which covers higher education news and issues such as gender and race.  

"We take nominations over the Internet, then we collectively discuss in-house" the scholars who have made significant contributions, Coleman says. Innovative research and published works are key factors in the decision.

Mitchell researches sexuality and gender, particularly how it has shaped Latino culture. He also authored Coyote Nation: Sexuality, Race, and Conquest in Modernizing New Mexico, 1880-1920, which was awarded the 2007 Ray Allen Billington Prize by the Organization of American Historians. The Billington Prize honors "the best book in American frontier history, defined broadly so as to include the pioneer periods of all geographical areas and comparisons between American frontiers and others."

The director of Comparative American Studies plans to write a history of people of mixed heritage in the United States. It's a narrative he can personally identify with—a native of New Mexico, Mitchell's mother is Latina, and his father is Anglo.

Mitchell tells the magazine he plans to focus on "theoretical ways of what it means to be between cultures and move back and forth."

"There are still some pretty clear boundaries, and people who cross them are reminded frequently that they are crossing them," he says. "I am interested in those people's lives and their stories."

His current book, with a working title of West of Sex: The Making of Latino America 1900-1930 , further explores Latino sexuality. After completing this work, Mitchell says he is interested in studying how sexuality and Latino history intersect with the history of American medicine, and he hopes to offer courses on that research in the next few years.

"I am very interested in interdisciplinary, intersectional approaches," Mitchell says in his profile in Diverse magazine. At Oberlin he teaches courses on the American West, Latino/a history, the Gilded Age in the United States (pre-Civil War to 1880), and U.S.-Mexico Borderlands." I am also interested in sexuality and gender. Traditional studies in sexuality, if they did look at race, looked at it as a Black-White binary, so I wondered where does Latino history fit into that? In terms of Latino history, not a lot of attention was being paid to sexuality and to how sexual differences created inequalities in communities."

Professor Carol Lasser, chair of the history department, says Mitchell's award is richly deserved.

"Professor Mitchell's historical work is creative, meticulously researched, and beautifully written," Lasser says. "Oberlin is fortunate to have his fearless leadership in establishing the Comparative American Studies Program. His vision, his commitment, and his superb scholarship inspire colleagues and students alike."

Related Links Faculty Expert: Pablo Mitchell History Department: Pablo Mitchell Faculty Page History Professor Crosses Disciplines to Study Life on the Border "Why Should Latina/os Vote?" in Oberlin College Why Vote?