Kelly Lytle Hernández

Kelly Lytle Hernández holds the Thomas E. Lifka Chair in History and African American Studies at UCLA. Her research examines race, immigration, and incarceration with particular focus on the U.S.-Mexico border region. Hernández's award-winning scholarship documents the historical development of immigration enforcement systems and their racial impacts.

Research focuses on:

• Historical formation of border enforcement
• Race and incarceration systems
• Comparative racialization processes
• Social justice movements
• Archival methodologies

Her publications reveal how institutions like the Border Patrol emerged from complex racial and political contexts. Hernández's work contributes to contemporary debates on immigration reform and prison abolition through historical analysis of enforcement systems. She has conducted extensive research in the National Archives' historical immigration records.

Selected Awards:

• Clements Prize (2010)
• Lora Romero First Book Prize Honorable Mention (2011)
• Bolton-Kinnaird Award (2007)