Maria Cristina Garcia

Howard A. Newman Professor of American Studies and Stephen H. Weiss Presidential Fellow

Image of Maria Cristina Garcia
120 Mary Ann Wood Dr.
mariacristinagarcia@cornell.edu
607/255-8862

Education

PhD, University of Texas at Austin

BA Georgetown University

Departments and programs

  • History
  • American Studies Program
  • Latina/o Studies Program

Overview

Garcia, an Andrew Carnegie Fellow, writes and teaches about refugees, immigrants, and asylum seekers.  Her most recent book is State of Disaster: The Failure of U.S. Migration Policy in an Age of Climate Change (University of North Carolina Press, 2022), which was awarded an Honorable Mention from the Theodore Saloutos Book Prize committee of the Immigration and Ethnic History Society.

She is the author of three other books:  The Refugee Challenge in Post-Cold War America (Oxford University Press, 2017), a study of the actors and interests that have shaped US refugee policy in the Post-Cold War and post 9/11 era; Seeking Refuge: Central American Migration to Mexico, the United States, and Canada (University of California Press, 2006), a study of the individuals, groups, and organizations that responded to the Central American refugee crisis of the 1980s and 1990s, and helped shape refugee policies throughout North America; and Havana USA: Cuban Exiles and Cuban Americans in South Florida (University of California Press, 1996), examined the migration of Cubans to the United States after the Castro revolution and how these Cold war migrants-became a powerful economic and political presence in the United States, influencing foreign policy and electoral outcomes, reshaping the cultural landscape of the South, and ultimately reinterpreting what it means to assimilate.

Garcia is co-editor (with Maddalena Marinari) of Whose America? U.S. Immigration Policy since 1980 (University of Illinois Press, 2023); and  (with Maddalena Marinari and Madeline Hsu) of A Nation of Immigrants Reconsidered: U.S. Society in an Age of Restriction, 1924-1965 (University of Illinois Press, 2019).

Her undergraduate and graduate courses reflect these research interests and are cross-listed with (or fulfill the requirements of) American Studies, Latino Studies, Latin American Studies, and Migration Studies.  While Garcia considers herself primarily a historian of 20th century U.S. history, her interest in displaced and mobile populations has increasingly blurred the geographic borders of her work.

In addition to the Andrew Carnegie Fellowship, Garcia is an elected member of the Academy of Arts and Sciences and the Society of American Historians. She is one of the two inaugural recipients of the President's and Provost's Award for Excellence in Research, Teaching,and Service in Diversity. She is also the recipient of Kendall S. Carpenter Memorial Advising Award and the Stephen and Margery Russell Distinguished Teaching Award.

Garcia serves on the History Advisory Committee of the Statue of Liberty-Ellis Island Foundation and has served as a consultant on various television programs.

Her op-eds have appeared in the Washington Post, the Wall Street Journal, The Conversation, the Orlando Sun-Sentinel, and Quartz. She has been interviewed on National Public Radio, C-Span, and Bloomberg Radio.

Research Focus

  • refugee, asylum, and immigration history
  • climate-driven migration
  • U.S. Latino history
  • Migration in the Americas
  • 20th century US history

Awards and Honors

Recent honors and awards:

  • Stephen H. Weiss Presidential Fellow
  • Andrew Carnegie Fellow
  • American Academy of Arts and Sciences
  • Society of American Historians
  • President’s and Provost’s Award for Excellence in Research, Teaching, and Service in Diversity
  • Kendall S. Carpenter Memorial Advising Award, Cornell University
  • Stephen and Margery Russell Distinguished Teaching Award, College of Arts and Sciences, Cornell University

Publications

Books

  • State of Disaster: The Failure of US Migration Policy in an Age of Climate Change (University of North Carolina Press, 2022).
  • The Refugee Challenge in Post-Cold War America (Oxford University Press, 2017)
  • Seeking Refuge: Central American Migration to Mexico, the United States, and Canada (University of California Press, 2006).
  • Havana USA: Cuban exiles and Cuban Americans in South Florida (University of California Press, 1996).

Edited Books

  • Whose America? US immigration policy since 1986 (with Maddalena Marinari), University of Illinois Press, 2019.
  • A Nation of Immigrants reconsidered: US Society in an Age of Restriction, 1924-1965 (with Maddalena Marinari and Madeline Hsu), University of Illinois Press, 2019.

Books in Progress

  • Origin Stories: Myth and History in the American Immigration Experience (under contract)

Select recent articles, book chapters, and public access articles

Responsibilities

Director, Latino Studies Program

In the news

LSP Courses - Spring 2025

LSP Courses - Fall 2025

Top