About me

Sonia Gomez, PhD

I am an Assistant Professor of 20th-century United States history at Santa Clara University, interested in race and ethnic relations; gender, sexuality, and intimacy; and immigration, migration, and diaspora. 

My maternal grandmother was a Japanese war bride and the source of inspiration for my first book.

Sonia Gomez
Sonia Gomez
About me

Sonia Gomez, PhD

I am an Assistant Professor of 20th-century United States history at Santa Clara University, interested in race and ethnic relations; gender, sexuality, and intimacy; and immigration, migration, and diaspora. 

My maternal grandmother was a Japanese war bride and the source of inspiration for my first book.

Sonia Gomez

My scholarship follows two intertwined paths, both rooted in a commitment to understanding race, gender, and power. One strand examines how gender and sexuality shaped U.S. imperial formations in the Pacific, particularly through the regulation of intimacy and immigration. The other traces the historical, social, and political ties that have connected Japanese and African American communities, illuminating shared struggles and unexpected solidarities across time.

I started my academic journey at Antelope Valley College, taking classes part-time while working and raising a family. In 2008, I earned an associates degree becoming the first in my family to earn a college degree. I went on to earn a B.A. in history from UC Berkeley, then a Ph.D. from the University of Chicago. Before joining SCU, I held fellowships at MIT and Harvard.

Picture Bride, War Bride: The Role of Marriage in Shaping Japanese America
Picture Bride, War Bride: The Role of Marriage in Shaping Japanese America
Picture Bride, War Bride: The Role of Marriage in Shaping Japanese America

In Picture Bride, War Bride, I explore how the institution of marriage created pockets of legal and social inclusion for Japanese women who were otherwise excluded on the basis of race. My analysis begins with the first wave of Japanese women's migration (picture brides) facilitated by the Gentlemen's Agreement of 1908 and ends with the second mass migration of Japanese women (war brides) after World War II. I trace popular and political discourse that drew upon overlapping and conflicting logics of race, gender, and sexuality to either racially exclude Japanese women or facilitate their inclusion via immigration legislation that privileged wives and mothers.

My next project explores Japanese American incarceration from the point-of-view of adolescent girls. I explore interracial female friendship, girlhood behind barbed wire, and letter-writing.