CURRENT POSITION
Associate Professor of History, Chair of the Department of History and Regional Studies, Coordinator of Purposeful Lives; Schreiner University, Kerrville, Texas.
ACADEMIC APPOINTMENTS
2023-Present Associate Professor of History, Schreiner University, Kerrville, Texas.
2017-2023 Assistant Professor of History, Schreiner University, Kerrville, Texas.
2016-2017 Adjunct Faculty in the Department of History and the Department of International Relations, University of Colorado, Boulder, Colorado.
2006-2022 History Instructor, Highline College, Des Moines, Washington.
EDUCATION
2015 Doctorate of Philosophy, University of Colorado, Boulder; Boulder, Colorado.
Dissertation: “Risking ‘Immeasurable Harm’: The Diplomacy of Immigration Restriction in U.S.-Mexico Relations, 1924 to 1932.”
Fields of Specialization: U.S.-Mexican Diplomatic Relations History, U.S. Diplomatic Relations History, U.S. History, Immigration in U.S. History, Mexican History, Mexican Immigration.
2004 Master of Arts, History, University of Nevada, Las Vegas; Las Vegas, Nevada.
Thesis: “Revolutionary Idealists to Revolutionary Statesmen: Bolshevik Foreign Policy, 1914 to 1922.”
2000 Bachelor of Arts, History, University of Nevada, Las Vegas; Las Vegas, Nevada.
PUBLICATIONS
Books
A Diplomatic History of US Immigration during the 20th Century: Policy, Law, and National Identity, Bloomsbury Academic Publishing, 2024.
Risking Immeasurable Harm: Immigration Restriction and U.S.-Mexican Diplomatic Relations, 1924-1932, University of Nebraska Press, 2020.
Edited Volumes
Beyond 1917: The United States and the Global Legacies of the Great War. Oxford University Press, 2017.
Refereed Journal Articles
“Immigration Policy and US Foreign Policy before 1945.” In Oxford Research Encyclopedia of American History. Oxford University Press. Article published August 2019. doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/acrefore/9780199329175.013.619.
“‘A Grave Offense of Significant Consequences’: Three Mexican Perspectives on the U.S. attempt to place a quota on Mexico’s immigration during the late 1920s,” Pacific Historical Review, Vol. 87, number 2, 2018, pp. 333-355.
Book Chapters
“Undermining the Sandbags: How Neoliberalism Encouraged Undocumented Migration, from the 1980s to the early 2000s” in Understanding and Teaching Contemporary American History, Reagan to Trump, Kimber Quinney and Amy L. Sayward, eds. University of Wisconsin Press, 2022.
Contributions to Digital Volumes
“Diplomatic Sources” in Bloomsbury History: Theory and Method, Bloomsbury Publishing, https://www.bloomsburyhistorytheorymethod.com/browse-content?docid=articlePrimarySource, doi: 10.5040/9781350915831.142, Identifier: b-9781350915831-142.
Conference Proceedings
Contributor, Special Roundtable: “Reconsidering the 1918–19 Influenza Pandemic in the Age of COVID-19”. The Journal of the Gilded Age and Progressive Era (2020), 1-31. doi: 10.1017/S1537781420000377
Book Reviews
Making the Latino South: A History of Racial Formation. By Cecilia Márquez. The Journal of East Tennessee History, Vol. 96–2024, pp. 113-115.
Texian Exodus: The Runaway Scrape and its Enduring Legacy. By Stephen L. Hardin. Pacific Historical Review, Vol 94, number 3, Summer 2025, pp. 353–355.
Remembering Conquest: Mexican Americans, Memory, and Citizenship. By Omar Valerio-Jiménez. Pacific Historical Review, Vol. 93, number 4, fall 2024, pp. 677-678.
Country of the Cursed and the Driven: Slavery and the Texas Borderlands. By Paul Barba. Pacific Historical Review, Vol. 93, number 3, summer 2024, pp. 535-537.
Labor’s Outcasts: Migrant Farmworkers and Unions in North America. By Andrew J. Hazelton. Pacific Historical Review, Vol. 92, number 2, spring 2023, pp. 303-305.
Imperial Metropolis: Los Angeles, Mexico, and the Borderlands of American Empire, 1865–1941. The David J. Weber Series in the New Borderlands History, by Jessica M. Kim, Western Historical Quarterly, Vol. 52, No. 2, Summer 2021, pp. 229-230.
Beyond the Borders of the Law: Critical Legal Histories of the North American West, Katrina Jagodinsky and Pablo Mitchell, eds., Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Vol. 124, No. 2, Oct 2020, pp. 229-230.
Deported to Death: How Drug Violence is Changing Migration on the US-Mexico Border, by Jeremy Slack, The Americas, Vol. 78, issue 1, January 2021, pp. 178-179.
The INS on the Line: Making Immigration Law on the U.S.-Mexico Border, by S. Deborah Kang, Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Vol. 122, number 4, April 2019, pp. 480-482.
Charros: How Mexican Cowboys Are Remapping Race and American Identity, by Laura R. Barraclough. Pacific Historical Review, Vol. 89, number 1, Winter 2020, pp. 151-152.
They Came to Toil: Representations of Mexicans and Immigrants in the Great Depression, by Melita M. Garza, Pacific Historical Review, Vol. 88, number 2, Spring 2019, pp. 294-296.
Op-Ed
“George Washington, a profile in tenacity and forbearance,” Hill Country Community Journal, February 22, 2022.
“The Shaky History of Mass Deportations: ‘Operation Wetback’ and ‘Mexican Repatriation’ worked–until they didn’t.” The Dispatch, March 5, 2025.
The Shaky History of Mass Deportations – Benjamin Montoya – The Dispatch
CONFERENCE ACTIVITY
Conferences Organized
2009-2011 Executive Planning Committee Member, Rocky Mountain Interdisciplinary History Conference, University of Colorado, Boulder; Boulder, CO.
Panels Organized
2020 Hollow Building Blocks: Immigration Restriction in the History of U.S.-Mexican Foreign Relations. The Society for Historians of American Foreign Relations (SHAFR) annual conference. Virtual: https://adamsigoodman.com/shafr2020/ , June 18-20.
2017 Breaking Bonds, Creating Enemies: U.S. Immigration Policy and Its Impact on U.S. Foreign Relations during the Interwar Period. The Society for Historians of American Foreign Relations (SHAFR) annual conference. Arlington, VA, June 23-25.
2016 Open Minds and Closed Borders: The Effects of Immigration Restriction on U.S. Foreign Relations. The Society for Historians of American Foreign Relations (SHAFR) annual conference. San Diego, CA, June 23-25.
Panels Presented
2025 “Total Loss, Honorable Defeat: The American South, Vietnamese Americans, and the Memory of the Vietnam War.” The Society for Historians of American Foreign Relations (SHAFR) annual conference, Arlington, VA, June 26-28.
2024 “Total Loss, Honorable Defeat: The American South, Vietnamese Americans, and the Memory of the Vietnam War.” The Southern Historical Association (SHA) annual conference, Kansas City, MO, October 24-27.
2024 “Retablos as a Frame for Understanding U.S.-Mexican Immigration Relations,” as part of the roundtable, Understanding and Teaching Contemporary American History, Reagan to Trump. The American Historical Association (AHA) annual conference, San Francisco, CA, January 4-7.
2023 “Permanent impermanence: displaced Central Americans, Reagan’s foreign policy, and U.S. refugee resettlement.” Western History Association (WHA) annual conference, Los Angeles, CA, October 26-29.
2023 “Retablos as a Frame for Understanding U.S.-Mexican Immigration Relations,” as part of the roundtable, Understanding and Teaching Contemporary American History, Reagan to Trump. The Society for Historians of American Foreign Relations (SHAFR) annual conference, Arlington, VA, June 15-17.
2020 “Undermining the Sandbags: How Neoliberalism Encouraged Undocumented Migration, from the 1980s to the early 2000s,” as part of the roundtable, Understanding and Teaching Contemporary American History, Reagan to Trump. The Society for Historians of American Foreign Relations (SHAFR) annual conference. Virtual, June 18-20.
2020 The “Quality of Free Man”: National Sovereignty as a bar to the Equality of Peoples–the Mexican anti-quota proposal of April 1928. The Society for Historians of American Foreign Relations (SHAFR) annual conference. Virtual: https://youtu.be/6WfcPl-Lj7o , June 18-20.
2018 Roundtable: The Geopolitics of Migration. The Society for Historians of American Foreign Relations (SHAFR) annual conference. Philadelphia, PA, June 21-23. Broadcast on C-SPAN III.
2017 “A Grave Offense of Significant Consequences”: Three Mexican Perspectives on the U.S. Attempt to Place a Quota on Mexican Immigration during the 1920s. The Society for Historians of American Foreign Relations (SHAFR) annual conference. Arlington, VA, June 23-25.
2017 “No state shall have the right to establish any discrimination”: International pressure against the U.S. effort to restrict Mexican immigration in 1928. The American Historical Association (AHA) annual conference, Denver, CO, January 5-8.
2016 “No state shall have the right to establish any discrimination”: International pressure against the U.S. effort to restrict Mexican immigration in 1928. The Society for Historians of American Foreign Relations (SHAFR) annual conference, San Diego, CA, June 23-25.
2016 1916: A turning point in U.S.-Mexican Relations. The American Historical Association (AHA) annual conference, Atlanta, GA, January 7-10. Broadcast on C-SPAN III.
2009 “A United Empire”: Remembrance of The Fallen as a Form of National Cohesion in post-Great War England, 1918-1920, Rocky Mountain Interdisciplinary History Conference, University of Colorado, Boulder; Boulder, CO, September 21-23.
2008 “A United Empire”: Remembrance of The Fallen as a Form of National Cohesion in post-Great War England, 1918-1920, Nexus Interdisciplinary Conference: Collected and Collective Identities. University of Tennessee; Knoxville, TN, March 13-15.
Commentator
2015 Rocky Mountain Interdisciplinary History Conference, University of Colorado, Boulder; Boulder, CO, September 18-20.
2014 Rocky Mountain Interdisciplinary History Conference, University of Colorado, Boulder; Boulder, CO, September 12-14.
TEACHING EXPERIENCE
Schreiner University, Kerrville, TX, Associate Professor of History (2017-Present)
United States History up to 1865
United States History since 1865
The History of Mexico
United States-Latin American Relations since 1810
The Vietnam Wars, 1945-1975
United States Relations with the Global South since 1945
Senior Theses Advised
-Jenna Hartman, “Defending the Enemy: John Adams’s Defense of the Redcoats and the Battle for Boston in the Boston Massacre Trials,” Spring 2023.
-Jasmine Natalie Rodriguez, “A Critique of International Law Regarding the Congo Crisis, Rwandan Genocide, and Congo Wars,” Fall 2023.
-Paulo J. Rubiano, “Soviet Russia’s NEP: A Socio-Economic Speed Bump or Pontoon Bridge?,” Fall 2023.
University of Colorado, Boulder, CO, Adjunct Faculty in the Department of History and the Department of International Relations (2016-2017)
United States History since 1865
United States Politics and Foreign Relations, 1898 to Present
U.S.-Latin American diplomatic relations since the end of the Cold War
United States Relations with the Global South since 1945
The Vietnam Wars, 1945-1975
Highline College, Des Moines, WA, Instructor (including online, 2006-2022)
United States History, 1492-1815
United States History, 1815-1900
United States History, 1900-Present
PROFESSIONAL SERVICE TO THE FIELD AND TO INSTITUTIONS
2025-present Faculty Affairs Committee, Chair, Schreiner University.
2024-present History and Regional Studies Department, Chair, Schreiner University
2024-present Pacific Historical Review, Editorial Board Member
2024-present Texas State Historical Association (TSHA), Program Committee Member
2023-2024 The Society for Historians of American Foreign Relations (SHAFR), Program Committee Member
2022-present Purposeful Lives, Schreiner University, Coordinator
2020-present The Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History, Scholarly Advisory Board, board member
2020-2022 The Society for Historians of American Foreign Relations (SHAFR), Committee on Minority Historians, committee member
2019-2023 Academic Affairs Committee, committee member. Schreiner University, Kerrville, TX
2018-2019 Quality Enhancement Plan-Advising Committee, chairperson. Schreiner University, Kerrville, TX
2017-2018 Quality Enhancement Plan Taskforce, committee member; Faculty Research Taskforce, committee member; Undergraduate Research Committee, committee member. Schreiner University, Kerrville, TX
2013-2014 Senior Assistant Editor, Diplomatic History, University of Colorado, Boulder; Boulder, CO
2011-2013 Junior Assistant Editor, Diplomatic History, University of Colorado, Boulder; Boulder, CO
INVITED TALKS & PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT
Lead Scholar: Teaching Literacy through History, The Gilder Lehrman Institute of
American History.
2019 Lecture title: “ ‘The Fusing Heat and Fervor’ of Assimilation: the Americanization Campaign of World War I.” Newark, NJ, February 26; Little Rock, AR, November 2
2019 Lecture title: “An Awkward Confluence: Domestic Nativism versus Diplomatic Neighborliness in U.S.-Mexican Relations, 1928.” New York City, NY, June 3.
2018-19 Lecture title: “The United States in the Great War Era: Balancing Security with Involvement.” Frisco, TX, October 27; Chicago, IL, April 6; Des Moines, IA, May 11.
2018 Lecture title: “America: A Nation of Immigrants.” Wichita, KS, June 7.
Invited Talks
2025 Presenter: “Seeking Balance: A Faculty-Led Conversation about Research, Teaching, and
Service.” Schreiner University, Kerrville, TX, March 3.
2024 Presenter: “Total Loss, Honorable Defeat: The American South, Vietnamese Americans, and the Memory of the Vietnam War,” Faculty, Schreiner University, Kerrville, TX, November 6.
2024 Presenter: “The History of Mexican Immigration,” at Texas Democratic Women, Hill Country Chapter, Kerrville, TX, September 3.
2024 Presenter: “Faith and Purpose,” at First Presbyterian Church, Kerrville, TX, July 28.
2023 Presenter: “The Place of Empathy in History Teaching,” at the E Pluribus, Texas Teacher Workshop, The Texas Center, Schreiner University, July 17.
2023 Lecturer: “George Washington, a profile in tenacity and forbearance,” Juniper Village at Guadalupe Waterfront, Kerrville, TX, June 22.
2023 Lecturer: “Political Cartoons: Windows Into and Mirrors of U.S. History,” to the Kiwanis Club of Kerrville, Kerrville, TX, March 1.
2023 Lecturer: “George Washington: the Reformer, and the President,” [two lectures] to the Dynamic Learning Institute Kerrville, TX, February 15 and February 22.
2022 Presenter: “Historical Empathy: A Pedagogical Path Through the History of the Texas Rangers?,” Texas Rangers Summit, The Texas Center, Schreiner University, November 12.
2022 Lecturer: “George Washington, the Revolutionary, the General,” [two lectures] to the Dynamic Learning Institute, Kerrville, TX, September 21 and September 28.
2022 Presenter: “The Place of Empathy in History Teaching,” at the E Pluribus, Texas Teacher Workshop, The Texas Center, Schreiner University, July 28.
2022 Lecturer: “George Washington, the Revolutionary, the General,” [two lectures] to the Sons of the American Revolution, Hill Country Chapter, Kerrville, TX, January 11 and February 8.
2021 Lecturer: “Mexican Immigration: Past Precedents and Contemporary Problems,” to the Kerr County Historical Commission, Kerrville, TX, September 20.
2019 Lecturer: “Mexican Immigration: An Intractable and Untrackable Problem?” to Hill Country Chapter of the League of Women Voters (LWV), Kerrville, TX, November 21.
2019 Lecturer: “Crucial Decisions: Fateful Consequences: D-Day as the Linchpin of the Grand Alliance, June 1941 to August 1944” given at the Butt-Holdsworth Memorial Library, in honor of the 75th Anniversary of the D-Day Landings, Kerrville, TX, June 13.
2019 Lecturer: “The American Revolution of Voting, 1780s to 1820s” given to Sons of the American Revolution, Hill Country Chapter, Kerrville, TX, May 14.
2019 Lecturer: “The Core of Audacity: the Corps of Discovery (the Lewis and Clark Expedition) and the Creation of the ‘Westering Nation.’” Chautauqua Speaker Series, Schreiner University, Kerrville, TX, March 5.
2019 Lecturer: “The Mexican Revolution,” to the Dynamic Learning Institute, Schreiner University, Kerrville, TX, January 29.
2018 Lecturer: “The Civil Right to Vote,” to Hill Country Chapter of the League of Women Voters (LWV), Kerrville, TX, November 8.
2018 Lecturer: “The United States: A Nation of Immigrants,” to the Dynamic Learning Institute, Schreiner University, Kerrville, TX, October 9.
2018 Lecturer: “Central American Gangs: The Multi-Point Origins of a Transnational Problem,” to the Hill Country Chapter of the American Association of University Women (AAUW), Schreiner University, Kerrville, TX, October 6.
2018 Lecturer: “The Civil Right to Vote,” to mark Constitution Day 2018, Schreiner University, Kerrville, TX, September 17.
2018 Lecturer, “The Waning of Pax Americana?,” as part of the Great Decisions-Foreign Policy Associations, Bulverde, TX, April 5.
Professional Development
2024 Attendee, Conference: Hispanic Association of Colleges and Universities (HACU), Aurora, CO, October 31-November 2.
2024 Attendee, Conference: Network for Vocation in Undergraduate Education (NETVUE), “Vocation for the Life of the World,” Atlanta, GA, March 21-23.
2018 Participant, Seminar: The Civil War and American Memory, Lead Scholar: David W. Blight, The Council of Independent Colleges and The Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History, Yale University, New Haven, CT, June 10-15.
2010 Participant, Colorado Learning and Teaching with Technology Conference, University of Colorado, Boulder; Boulder, CO; August 7-8.
2008 Participant, Presenting Data and Information Workshop by Edward Tufte, Seattle, WA, July 15.
2007 Participant, Early College Conference, Simon’s Rock College; Berkshires, MA, August 24-26.
2006 Participant, Digital Storytelling Workshop, University of Colorado, Denver; Denver, CO, November 19-22.
PROFESSIONAL ASSOCIATIONS
The Society for Historians of American Foreign Relations (SHAFR), 2010
The American Historical Association (AHA), 2015
Conference on Latin American History (CLAH), 2015
Western History Association (WHA), 2022
AWARDS, GRANTS, & HONORS
2025 The Nancy and Cecil Atkission Professorship, Schreiner University.
2025 Large Faculty Affairs Committee Grant, Schreiner University.
2024 Small Faculty Affairs Committee Grant, Schreiner University.
2024 The Margaret Hosler Award for Excellence in Teaching, Schreiner University.
2023 Small Faculty Affairs Committee Grant, Schreiner University.
2023 Large Faculty Affairs Committee Grant, Schreiner University.
2015 Dissertation Completion Fellowship, University of Colorado, Boulder.
2014 Samuel Flagg Bemis Dissertation Research Grant, The Society for Historians of American Foreign Relations (SHAFR).
2013 Dean’s Graduate Student Research Grant Award, University of Colorado, Boulder.
2004 Phi Kappa Phi.
2000 Phi Alpha Theta, Psi-Sigma Chapter
RELATED PROFESSIONAL SKILLS
Online learning module systems
Angel: expert
Blackboard: expert
Canvas: expert
Desire to Learn: expert
Echo360: expert
LANGUAGES
Spanish: reading, writing, some conversational.
Benjamin C. Montoya 