Dr. Lauren Araiza joined the faculty at Denison in the spring of 2007. She teaches survey courses in African-American history and the U.S. since 1865. She also offers upper level seminars on the Civil Rights Movement, the intellectual history of Black Power, immigration and migrations in U.S. history, and comparative social movements. Her other teaching interests include labor history, comparative race and ethnicity, and oral history.

Dr. Araiza is currently preparing a manuscript for publication entitled, “‘For Freedom of Other Men’: Civil Rights, Black Power, and the United Farm Workers.” Based on her dissertation, her manuscript examines the relationships between the UFW, a union of primarily Mexican-American farm workers in California, and civil rights organizations including the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC), the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC), the National Urban League, the NAACP, and the Black Panther Party. Dr. Araiza has recently published an article in the Journal of African American History and has contributed an essay to the edited collection, The Struggle in Black and Brown: African American and Mexican American Relations During the Civil Rights Era (University of Nebraska Press, forthcoming).

Dr. Araiza received her BA from Williams College and her MA and PhD from the University of California, Berkeley.