Biography
Sarah McNamara is Assistant Professor of History and affiliated faculty in the Latina/o & Mexican American Studies Program at Texas A&M University. Her research centers on the intersections of Latinx, women and gender, labor, and immigration in the Gulf South and U.S. South regions. McNamara has published in the Journal of American Ethnic History, Labor: Studies in Working Class History, and the edited volume 50 Events that Shaped Latino History. Her first book, Ybor City: The Crucible of the Latina South, is forthcoming in Spring 2022 from UNC Press. McNamara is dedicated to sharing research with a broad audience. She has written for Public Seminar, The Washington Post, The Houston Chronicle and South Writ Large. McNamara’s work has received support from the National Endowment for the Humanities, the American Association of University of Women, the Institute for Citizens and Scholars among others.
Research
The Monroe Research Fellowship will support the creation of South of the South, a documentary podcast of the history of the Gulf South. South of the South will bring academic research to life by engaging the public with well-produced episodes of academic research of the region. Over the course of the fellowship year, McNamara will create the podcast’s first season, “A Latina South,” composed of six episodes, unites scholarship and entertainment. Listeners will be immersed in oral histories of Latina voices, sounds of cities and workplaces, and a narrative that illustrates the long history of Latina activism and Latina power in the region. McNamara is grateful to the generous funding of the Monroe Fellowship which has funded the costs of documentary and podcast equipment necessary to bring these histories to life.
