Contact the Editors

 Meet the Editors

Thomas A. Castillo

Thomas A. Castillo is an assistant professor of history at Coastal Carolina University (Conway, South Carolina, just outside of Myrtle Beach) who specializes in 20th-century U.S. history, with a research focus on labor, inequality, class, ideology, urban, African American and immigration studies.  He teaches courses on various topics on U.S. history including twentieth history and such courses as the history of the American Dream.  He earned a Ph.D. in U.S. History at the University of Maryland.  His publications include an award-winning article in the Florida Historical Quarterly (2004) on how early twentieth-century working class migrants to Miami fought for political and economic power and built a vibrant community.  Dr. Castillo has written numerous book reviews in such publications as Labor History, Labor: Working Class History of the Americas, and Journal of American History, among several others. He has also published in various online venues (Metropole and Counterpunch).

His book Working in the Magic City: Moral Economy in Early Twentieth Century Miami will be published by the University of Illinois Press (May 2022) as part of their The Working Class in American History. Dr. Castillo has a second project on the longer history of right to work with a primary focus on the origins of the right to work movement of the 1940s.  He has also worked as a full-time academic advisor at the University of Maryland where he helped develop dynamic and transparent advising practices particularly geared in assisting first generation students in their efforts to meet the challenges of the 21st century American university. He has continued these mentoring practices at Coastal Carolina Univeristy. 

Education

University of Maryland, College Park – Ph.D. in U.S. History

Florida International University – M.A. in History

Florida International University – B.A. in History

Teaching Areas

U.S. History including Labor and Working Class Studies, Political Economy, African American and Immigration Studies, Social and Cultural History, Urban History, Oral History, and Modern U.S. (1865 to the present)

Research Areas 

U.S. History including Labor and Working Class Studies, Political Economy, African American and Immigration Studies, Social and Cultural History, Urban History, and Modern U.S. (1865 to the present)

Interesting Facts

-Won the Arthur W. Thompson Award in 2004 for best article on Florida History (“Miami’s Hidden Labor History,” Florida Historical Quarterly, Spring 2004)

-Dr. Castillo has held numerous jobs throughout his life, including working at a fast food restaurant, a retail store, a supermarket, as a house painter, an athletic coach, high school teacher, substitute teacher, and academic advisor

-Dr. Castillo is a first-generation student    

 

Caroline Waldron

Caroline Waldron (formerly Merithew) is Associate Professor of History and a Human Rights Fellow at the University of Dayton.  She specializes in the intersection of labor immigration and women's history. Her current research focuses on the relationship of antifascist struggles which emanated from working class internationalism and transnational feminism as they joined forces to keep Ethiopia independent in the 1930s. She has been the AAUP president of the chapter at the University of Dayton. In addition, she has held leadership roles at UD in fair employment practices that include academic freedom and diversity/inclusion. serving as the Provost's first Advisor on Gender and Equity.

 

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