Rate My Professor Martin Rizzo-Martinez

Martin Rizzo-Martinez is an Assistant Professor in the Film and Digital Media Department at the University of California, Santa Cruz, with an affiliation to Latin American and Latino Studies. Holding a Ph.D. in History from UC Santa Cruz in 2016 with designated emphases in American Studies and Latin American and Latino Studies, an M.A. in History from UC Santa Cruz in 2010, a B.A. in American Studies from UC Santa Cruz in 2004, and a B.A. in Philosophy from UC Irvine in 1999, he brings extensive expertise in historical research to his teaching and creative work.

His scholarship focuses on Indigenous histories, politics, and stories from nineteenth-century California, emphasizing politics of survival, rebellion, and perseverance by centering Indigenous peoples rather than colonial institutions like missions. Research areas encompass Native American History, Spanish Borderlands, Indigenous Studies, Colonialism and Nationalism, American History, California History, Critical Race and Ethnic Studies, Latin American and Latino Studies, and American Studies. As a public historian, he develops audio and video projects highlighting Indigenous perspectives. Career highlights include prior roles as State Park Historian and Tribal Liaison for California State Parks Santa Cruz District, UC Chancellor’s Postdoctoral Fellow at UC Riverside (2018-2020), and adjunct instructor at UC Santa Cruz, Hartnell College, and Cabrillo College. His book We Are Not Animals: Indigenous Politics of Survival, Rebellion, and Reconstitution in Nineteenth-Century California (University of Nebraska Press, 2022) received the 2023 John C. Ewers Award for best book on North American Indian Ethnohistory from the Western History Association and 2023 Choice Outstanding Academic Title. Key publications also feature “If They Do Not Fulfill What They Have Promised, I Will Accuse Them: Locating Indigenous Women and Their Influence in the California Missions” (Western Historical Quarterly, 2020), winner of the 2021 Arrington-Prucha Prize and named a top article by Oxford University Press, and “The Many Lives of Justiniano Roxas: The Centenarian Fantasy in American History and Memory” (Native American and Indigenous Studies, 2018, co-authored with Boyd Cothran). Awards include the Dolkas-Mertz Distinguished Historian Award and Arts Research Institute grants. Public contributions involve the virtual exhibit For Whom the Bell Tolls, podcast Challenging Colonialism, and documentary The Walk for the Ancestors.