Daniel J. Fernández-Guevara is a former McKnight Doctoral Fellow at the University of Florida (UF) and Coordinator for The Institute of Museum and Library Services’ Farmworker oral history project. Currently, Dr. Fernández-Guevara serves as the Managing Editor for the academic journal Cuban Studies, and a Fulbright Postdoctoral Research Fellow, 2023-2024 (Madrid, Spain).
His research interests include Modern Latin America, Modern Cuba, Modern Caribbean History, Migration/Diaspora Studies, Solidarity, Latinx History, Modern Iberia, Oral History, and World History.
He defended his dissertation on July 28, 2022, and will graduate December 16, 2022, with a PhD in Latin American history from the University of Florida. He earned his MA in Latin American history at the University of Florida in 2016 and a BA in History from Barry University in 2004. He earned certificates from the University of Florida’s Center for Teaching Excellence, Postdoctoral Affairs, and the Office of Graduate Professional Development, including the competitive Preparing Future Faculty program organized in 2022.
As an undergraduate, Dr. Fernández-Guevara often felt that the history he read focused mostly on elites and ignored the impact of migrants on society. He completed a double major in History while producing independent films aired on PBS and pioneering a collection of 100+ oral history interviews from a broad range of ideologies in South Florida’s Cuban community. After earning his BA and completing these projects, he taught at a Title-I High School in Little Havana in Miami, Florida, servicing a mostly Latinx and African American student population.
Dr. Fernández-Guevara is driven to extend his teaching beyond the classroom through public history projects. Prior to seeking the PhD, he co-produced a short documentary titled Celia The Queen: The Life and Music of Celia Cruz for the Smithsonian Institute in Washington D.C. (2005). Once in graduate school, he used these past experiences to collaborate in the first bilingual exhibit for UF’s George A. Smathers Library, titled “Revolucionarias” (2014). The COVID-19 pandemic temporarily interrupted his archival research abroad, but he turned this setback into service. He led Covid-19 Latinx interviews for UF’s Samuel Proctor Oral History Program (2020). Currently, among his ongoing public history projects, he serves as Coordinator for a project to acquire Florida farmworker oral histories. Simultaneously, he is Content Manager of a digital humanities project, CubanStudies@UF, expected to launch on January 1, 2023.
When he is not writing, editing, or teaching, Dr. Fernández-Guevara enjoys coaching baseball, cooking, and collecting music. He owns more than 50,000 songs in his archive. He has an amazing partner, Lauren, who is a budding writer and together they have two wonderful children who make him coach baseball.
