Smithsonian Latino Museum Studies Program Fellow
Daisy R. Herrera is a Ph.D. student in the History Department at the University of California, Riverside (UCR) and a first generation Chicana scholar. Her research focuses on the Mexican American/Chicanx experience in Los Angeles’ San Fernando Valley (SFV) around relational race making, citrus labor, housing/education segregation, and the socio-political impact of the Chicana/o Movement during the twentieth century. She hopes to use her degree to pursue a career in public history and help showcase the SFV’s history at the local and national level. Prior to her Ph.D. program, Daisy earned a BA in History and Women’s Studies from UCR and a dual Masters in Latin American Studies and Mexican American Studies alongside a post-graduate certificate in the Study of Women, Gender and Sexualities from California State University, Los Angeles.
Her transdisciplinary interests also incorporate public and oral history methodology. Daisy is active in paving the path for emerging Chicanx/Latinx scholars and encourages proper representation by engaging in committee and board work for the Oral History Association (OHA), the Historical Society of Southern California (HSSC), the Southwest Oral History Association (SOHA), the San Fernando Valley Historical Society (SFVHS), and Mujeres Activas en Letras y Cambio Social (MALCS). Daisy has published for the MALCS’ Chicana/Latina Journal, the HSSC’s The Southern Quarterly Journal, and the OHA’s The Oral History Review. She joined the team in July as a NMAL Latino Museum Studies Program summer fellow and is helping transcribe the interviews.