Kevan Antonio Aguilar

Biography

Kevan Antonio Aguilar, Ph.D., is Assistant Professor of History with affiliated appointments in the Department of Chicano/Latino Studies, the Native American and Indigenous Studies Minor Program, and the Department of Latin American and Iberian Cultures at the University of California, Irvine.

His research examines transnational radical movements, Spanish exiles in Mexico, and the intersections of race, labor, and internationalism in twentieth-century Latin America. Aguilar received his Ph.D. in History from the University of California, San Diego. Before joining UC Irvine, he served as a President's Postdoctoral Fellow at the University of Maryland, College Park, and as a lecturer at UC San Diego.

He is currently finishing his first book monograph, “Revolutionary Encounters: Spanish Exiles in the Mexican Countryside,” which examines the perceptions and receptions of Mexicans toward political refugees fleeing the Spanish Civil War. The study documents the political affinities that emerged between Mexicans and Spaniards during the years of the Mexican Revolution and Spanish Civil War, as well as efforts by the Mexican government to settle thousands of Spanish exiles in rural enclaves of the country. Aguilar is also working on a second book-length project documenting multiracial labor struggles in the Inland Empire during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries.

Aguilar's scholarship has appeared in the Hispanic American Historical Review, Radical History Review, and Journal of Latin American Studies. His article "From Comrades to Subversives: Mexican Secret Police and 'Undesirable' Spanish Exiles, 1939-60" received the Paul Vanderwood Prize from the Conference on Latin American History in 2023. He is currently completing a book manuscript titled Revolutionary Encounters: Spanish Exiles in the Mexican Countryside, which explores the experiences of Spanish refugees in rural Mexico during and after the Spanish Civil War. In 2025, he was named a Citizens and Scholars Career Enhancement Fellow.

Aguilar is also the cofounder of the Sin Fronteras Project, a digital humanities resource that documents the history of radicalism in the U.S.-Mexico borderlands. In collaboration with his Co-PI Maurice R. Magaña at UC Davis, the initiative has received financial support through the UC Alianza MX Latino Studies Project. He is also the co-founder of the Inland Empire People's History Conference, which brings together scholars, labor organizers, cultural workers, activists, and community members to explore the art, cultural, and people throughout inland Southern California.

Education

• Ph.D. in History, University of California, San Diego, 2021
• M.A. in Latin American Studies, University of California, San Diego, 2014
• B.A. in History with minor in Latin American Studies, California State University, Long Beach, 2012

Distinctions

• UC Alianza MX Latino Studies Project Award, 2026-2028
• UCI Center for Liberation, Anti-Racism, and Belonging Fellowship, 2025-2027
• Conference on Latin American History - Paul Vanderwood Prize, 2023
• Citizens and Scholars Career Enhancement Fellow, 2025
• UCI Illuminations: The Chancellor's Arts & Culture Initiative Award, 2023
• University of California Humanities Research Institute (UCHRI) Faculty Summer Research Grant, 2023