Eric Avila

Associate Professor of Chicana/o Studies

7349 Bunche
(310) 825-9106
eavila@ucla.edu

Education

Ph. D., U. S. History, University of California at Berkeley, 1997
M. A., U. S. History, University of California at Berkeley, 1992.
B. A., U. S. History, University of California at Berkeley, 1990.

Fields of Study

20th Century U.S. History; urban and cultural history; popular/mass culture; history of architecture and the built environment; race and ethnicity; Chicano Studies

Professional Experience

Eric Avila received his B.A., M.A., and Ph.D. in U. S. History from the University of California at Berkeley. He has taught Chicano Studies and History at U.C.L.A. since 1997 and was promoted to associate professor in 2004. He is the author of Popular Culture in the Age of White Flight: Fear and Fantasy in Suburban Los Angeles, published by the University of California Press in 2004. His research has won various awards and prizes, including the recent inclusion of his article "Popular Culture in the Age of White Flight: Film Noir Disneyland, and the Cold War (Sub)Urban Imaginary," published in the Journal of Urban History within a new publication by the Organization of American Historians featuring the ten best articles in American history written between the summers of 2004 and 2005. He recently completed a postdoctoral fellowship at Harvard University, in the Charles Warren Center for Studies in American History, where he began research for a second book project entitled The Folklore of the Freeway: A Cultural History of Highway Construction.

Books

Avila, Eric, 2004, Popular Culture in the Age of White Flight: Fear and Fantasy in Suburban Los Angeles, (University of California Press).

Noriega, Chon, Avila, Eric, Sandoval, Chela, Pérez-Torres, and Dávalos, Mary Karen, 2001, The Chicano Studies Reader: An Anthology of Aztlán, 1970-2000, (Los Angeles: UCLA Chicano Studies Research Center).

Articles and Book Chapters

Avila, Eric, 2004, "Popular Culture in the Age of White Flight: Film Noir, Disneyland and the Cold War (Sub)Urban Imaginary," Journal of Urban History, (Sage Publications).

Avila, Eric, 2002, "Revisiting the Chavez Ravine: Baseball, Urban Renewal and the Gendered Civic Culture of Postwar Los Angeles," in Alicia Gaspar de Alba, ed. Velvet Barrios: Popular Culture and Chicana/o Sexualities, (Palgrave Macmillian, December), pp.125-139.

Avila, Eric, 2001, "Dark City: White Flight and the Urban Science Fiction Film in Postwar America," in Daniel Bernardi, ed. Classic Whiteness: Race and the Hollywood Studio System, (University of Minnesota Press).

Avila, Eric, 1998, "The Folklore of the Freeway: Space, Identity and Culture in Postwar Los Angeles," in Aztlán: A Journal of Chicano Studies, Vol. 23, No. 1 (Spring), pp. 15-31.

Courses

• Chicano Studies 10A, "Introduction to Chicano Life and Cultures." (Fall 2008, Fall 2003, Summer 2002, Fall 1998)

• Chicano Studies 89, "Honors Seminars." (Fall 2008)

• Chicano Studies 101, "Theoretical Approaches to Chicana/o Studies." (Spring 2010, Winter 2003, Winter 2001, Spring 1999)

• Chicano Studies 180, "City and Community: A History of Chicano Los Angeles, Contact to 1900." (Spring 2003, Fall 2000, Fall 1997)

• Chicano Studies M183/ History M164, "History of Los Angeles." (Summer 2003 , Spring 2003 , Summer 2002 , Winter 2002, Summer 1999)

• Chicano Studies M182/ History M151, "Understanding Whiteness in American History and Culture." (Winter 2009, Winter 2008, Winter 2004, Fall 2002, Spring 2002, Spring 1999, Winter 1998)

• Chicano Studies 171, "Latino Metropolis: Architecture and Urbanism in the Americas." (Winter 2010)

• Chicano Studies 189, "Advanced Honors Seminars." (Spring 2010)

• Chicano Studies 191, "Variable Topics Research Seminars: Chicana and Chicano Studies Chicano Studies 191, Seminar 1: Latino Metropolis: Architecture and Urbanism in the Americas." (Winter 2010)