EMMA
AMADOR
ABOUT
Associate Professor, Department of History, University of Connecticut
2026-2027, Justice, Equity, and Repair Faculty Research Fellow at the University of Connecticut Humanities Institute
I am a historian of Puerto Ricans, Latinas in the United States, and women and gender. I have research and teaching experience in Puerto Rican, United States, Caribbean, and Latin American history.
My first book, The Politics of Care Work: Puerto Rican Women Organizing for Social Justice, was published by Duke University Press in May 2025. This book tells the story of Puerto Rican women’s involvement in political activism for social and economic justice in Puerto Rico and the United States throughout the twentieth century. I focus on the experiences and contributions of Puerto Rican social workers, care workers, and caregivers who fought for the compensation of reproductive labor in society and the establishment of social welfare programs. I show how their relentless efforts gradually shifted the field of social work toward social justice and community-centered activism. Their profound and enduring impact on Puerto Rican communities underscores the crucial role of Puerto Rican women’s caregiving labor and activism in building and sustaining migrant communities.
The Politics of Care Work received a 2025 Honorable Mention for the Sharon Harris Book Award from the University of Connecticut Humanities Institute.
I am currently working on two new books. The first, Bright Futures: How Antonia Pantoja’s Vision of Community Organizing Sparked Movements for Latina and Puerto Rican Rights, is a biography of trailblazing Afro-Puerto Rican civil rights activist Dr. Antonia Pantoja (1922-2002), one of the most important and understudied Latina political leaders of the twentieth century. It offers the first book-length biography of Pantoja, highlighting the enduring relevance of her groundbreaking work as a community organizer to contemporary struggles for equality. The second, Community Work: Puerto Rican Women and Feminist Politics in the United States, is a long-term project that explores the history of Puerto Rican women as community organizers and welfare rights activists in the United States from 1950 to 2000.
My writing is forthcoming or has been published in Journal of American Ethnic History, Labor: Studies in Working-Class History, ILWCH: International Labor and Working-Class History, and Modern American History.
My research and writing has been generously funded by a wide range of institutions. I was previously a Rooted + Relational Research Fellow at the Center for Puerto Rican Studies at CUNY, Hunter College, and a Presidential Postdoctoral Fellow at Brown University at the Center for the Study of Race and Ethnicity in America and the History Department. Additionally, I was a Ford Foundation Dissertation Fellow, a Summer Institute on Tenure and Advancement (SITPA) Fellow at Duke University, a Dissertation Fellow at the Center for Puerto Rican Studies at Hunter College, CUNY, and a Rackham Merit Fellow at the Graduate School of the University of Michigan. At UConn, my research has been funded by the JEDI Initiative Research Award from the Provost’s Office, a CLAS Research in Academic Themes Award, and a SCHARP Award. I have also received a Humanities Faculty Fellowship (2019-2020), a Felberbaum Family Faculty Award, and a Humanities Book Support Award from the Humanities Institute at UConn.
