Historian Dr. Felipe Hinojosa talks to editor Alejandra Mejía, who acquires books in Latinx history at Duke University Press

Sampling of Duke University Press titles in Chicanx & Latinx Studies and/or Religious Studies—click on book covers for details.

In this episode of OP Talks, historian Dr. Felipe Hinojosa engages with Alejandra Mejía, an Assistant Editor and Editorial Operations Coordinator at Duke University Press, focusing on Latinx history. Mejía delves into the press's identity and shares insights on what she seeks in book proposals. Drawing from her experiences as both a writer and editor, she discusses the challenges authors face and offers valuable advice on manuscript development, highlighting the collaborative relationship between editors and writers in shaping scholarship.

She also shares her work with Migrant Roots Media, where the power of lived experiences serves as a foundation for building knowledge around migration analysis. The contributions from immigrants, organizers, students, and scholars often blend personal narratives with sociopolitical analysis and historical context. Mejia emphasizes the platform's focus: “...what we understand to be the root causes of migration. By root causes, we mean the effects of U.S. foreign policy or, for example, global capitalism; the effects of those larger systems of power in creating displacement to begin with, because we feel like this is often left out of narratives about migration in the U.S.”

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Born and raised in Brownsville, Texas, Dr. Felipe Hinojosa is the John and Nancy Jackson Endowed Chair in Latin America & Professor of History at Baylor University. Dr. Hinojosa was formerly on faculty at Texas A&M University in College Station, Texas, where he also served as Director for the university's Carlos H. Cantu Hispanic Education & Opportunity Endowment. His research areas include Chicana/o and Latina/o Studies, American Religion, Race and Ethnicity, and Social Movements. He co-edited Faith & Power: Latino Religious Politics Since 1945 (New York University Press, 2022) with Sergio M. González and Maggie Elmore. His recent book, Apostles of Change: Latino Radical Politics, Church Occupations, and the Fight to Save the Barrio (University of Texas Press, 2021) is set in four major cities (Chicago, New York, Los Angeles, and Houston), where, in 1969 and 1970, Latino radical activists clashed with religious leaders as they occupied churches to protest urban renewal, poverty, police brutality, and racism. Latino Mennonites: Civil Rights, Faith, and Evangelical Culture (Johns Hopkins University Press, 2014) received the 2015 Américo Paredes Book Award for the best book in Mexican American and Latina/o Studies by the Center for Mexican American Studies at South Texas College. His work has appeared in Zócalo Public Square, Western Historical Quarterly, American Catholic Studies, Mennonite Quarterly Review, and Latina/o Studies collections. Dr. Hinojosa holds a PhD in History from the University of Houston, an MA in History from the University of Texas Pan American, and BA in English from Fresno Pacific University. He serves on the Advisory Board for the interdisciplinary, peer-reviewed, and online moderated forum Latinx Talk.

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Alejandra Mejía is an Assistant Editor and Editorial Operations Coordinator at Duke University Press, where she acquires books in Latinx history. Her politics and devotion to migrant justice are largely informed by being the daughter of a single, working-class immigrant mother. She is also the Chief Editor of Migrant Roots Media, an independent media platform that centers the analyses of migrants and children of migrants to unearth the root causes of global migration. She served as co-lead of the Antiracism Toolkit for Black, Indigenous, and People of Color in Scholarly Publishing, hosted by the Coalition for Diversity and Inclusion in Scholarly Communications. Mejía holds a BA in Comparative Literature with a concentration in Latinx studies from Williams College.

Academic Publishing

Historian Dr. Felipe Hinojosa talks to editor Alejandra Mejía, who acquires books in Latinx history at Duke University Press

HTI Open Plaza

Academic Publishing

Historian Dr. Felipe Hinojosa talks to editor Alejandra Mejía, who acquires books in Latinx history at Duke University Press

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