Rate My Professor David Garcia

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.