Johanna Fernández
Dr. Johanna Fernández is an Associate Professor of History at Baruch College, City University of New York (CUNY). Dr. Fernández specializes in 20th Century U.S. history and the history of social movements and is the author of The Young Lords: A Radical History (UNC Press, 2020). The book explores the Puerto Rican counterpart of the Black Panther Party and has received the American Book Award, the Frederick Jackson Turner Award, the New York City Book Award, the Merle Curti Award, and the Liberty Legacy Foundation Award. Dr. Fernández's recent research and litigation have significantly advanced the field, particularly through her successful Freedom of Information Law (FOIL) lawsuit against the NYPD, which recovered the "lost" Handschu files. This archive, containing over one million surveillance records compiled by the NYPD from 1954 to 1972, includes crucial primary documents on New Yorkers, including Malcolm X, making it the largest repository of police surveillance records in the U.S. She is the editor of Writing on the Wall: Selected Prison Writings of Mumia Abu-Jamal (City Lights, 2015) and with Abu-Jamal co-edited a special issue of Socialism and Democracy titled "The Roots of Mass Incarceration in the US: Locking Up Black Dissidents and Punishing the Poor" (Routledge, 2014). Her scholarly contributions have earned her multiple accolades, including the Fulbright Scholars grant for research in the Middle East and North Africa and a National Endowment for the Humanities Fellowship at the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture. Her writings have been featured internationally, from Al Jazeera to the Huffington Post, and she has appeared in various media outlets, including NPR, The New York Times, and Democracy Now! As an accomplished filmmaker, she directed and co-curated the exhibition ¡Presente! The Young Lords in New York, recognized by The New York Times as one of 2015’s Top 10 Best in Art. She also wrote and produced Justice on Trial: The Case of Mumia Abu-Jamal (BigNoise Films, 2010). Dr. Fernández holds a PhD in U.S. History from Columbia University and a BA in Literature and American Civilization from Brown University. During the pandemic, she hosted WBAI’s radio morning show, “A New Day” and currently hosts their morning show, “What’s Going On!Friday.” Her current research focuses on U.S. fascism.
