Erica Toffoli

PhD Program

Campus

Fields of Study

Areas of Interest

U.S. History
Latin American History
Migration and Diaspora
Cultural History
Social History
U.S.-Latin American Relations

Major and Minor Fields

Major

  • History of the United States after 1876
  • Modern Latin American History

Minor 1

20th-Century U.S. Foreign Relations

Working Dissertation

Title

Electric Eyes: Reframing Latin American Migration in the U.S. Borderlands (1950s-1990s)

Supervisors

Kevin Coleman
Russell Kazal
Donna Gabaccia

Biography

My research explores the history of photography and Latin American migration in the 20th-century United States. My work is published in the Journal of Social History, the Radical History Review, and Photography and Culture. At the University of Toronto, I have served as an instructor for the following courses: HIS290: Introduction to Latin American History, HIS494: Visual Culture in 20th-Century Latin America, HIS 390: Revolutions and Nations in Latin America, and HISB30: The History of the United States to the Civil War.

Publications

  • “Alienating Exposures: Photographing the Activity of Labor.” Photography and Culture 13.2 (2020): 197-211 (DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/17514517.2020.1754656)
  • “A Double-Edged Pluralism: Paradoxes of Diversity in the United States International Institute Movement, 1945-1965.” Journal of Social History. Co-authored with Franca Iacovetta. Advance article (shaa014) published on 26 April 2020, pp. 1-23 (DOI: https://doi.org/10.1093/jsh/shaa014)
  • “Capturing Capitalism’s Work: Competing Photo-Narratives of the Bracero Program.” Radical History Review, Issue No. 132: Photography and Work. (October 2018): 126-143 (DOI: https://doi.org/10.1215/01636545-6942453)
  • Introduction to "Revolution and Revolutionary Movements in Latin America: A Special Research and Teaching Collection of 'The Americas.' " Edited by Erica Toffoli. The Americas: A Quarterly Review of Latin American History. 74.S1 (February 2017): 3-12 (DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/tam.2016.96)

Education

MA, University of Toronto
BA (Honours), University of Toronto

Cohort