David G. García is an associate professor in the UCLA School of Education and Information Studies and the Department of History. A UCLA alumnus, he received his Ph.D. in U.S. History in 2006, M.A. in Latin American Studies in 2000, and B.A. in Sociology with a Chicana/o Studies specialization in 1996, all from UCLA. Previously, he held the University of California President’s Postdoctoral Fellowship in the Department of Sociology at UC Santa Barbara and Ford Foundation and UCLA Hellman Fellowships. His interdisciplinary research trajectory encompasses Chicana/o teatro as public revisionist history, the pedagogy of Hollywood’s urban school genre, and Chicana/o educational histories. These inquiries address the interconnectivity of history and education in Chicana/o and Latina/o communities, exploring how race, culture, and class construct educational experiences for communities of color across time and place.

García’s book Strategies of Segregation: Race, Residence, and the Struggle for Educational Equality (University of California Press, 2018) uncovers the architecture of racial inequality in Oxnard, California’s schools and housing from 1903 to 1974, drawing on extensive archival research and over 60 oral histories with Mexican American and African American residents. The work examines the case Soria v. Oxnard School Board of Trustees, one of the first desegregation lawsuits filed jointly by Mexican American and Black plaintiffs. His research has practical impact, inspiring sixth-grade students in Oxnard to successfully advocate for renaming their middle school and an elementary school in Ventura. García has received numerous honors, including the 2024 AERA Division G Henry T. Trueba Award for Research Leading to the Transformation of the Social Contexts of Education, 2020 Society of Professors of Education Outstanding Book Award, 2019 American Educational Studies Association Critics’ Choice Book Award, and 2019 AERA Division F New Scholars Book Award Honorable Mention. Notable publications include co-authored articles such as “Recovering Our Past: A Methodological Reflection” (History of Education Quarterly, 2020), “‘Strictly in the Capacity of Servant’” (History of Education Quarterly, 2013), and “‘A Few of the Brightest, Cleanest Mexican Children’” (Harvard Educational Review, 2012). His scholarship has appeared in media outlets like The Los Angeles Times and NPR’s Latino USA.

Professional Email: davidgg@ucla.edu