Professor of History, Penn State
A. K. Sandoval-Strausz was born in New York City to immigrant parents. He teaches courses in Latino studies, urban history, spatial theory, sociability, and immigration. He is a National Endowment for the Humanities Public Scholar and a Distinguished Lecturer of the Organization of American Historians.
His first book, Hotel: An American History (Yale University Press, 2007), won the American Historical Association-Pacific Coast Branch Book Award and was named a Best Book of 2007 by Library Journal. Click these links for book reviews and interviews featured in the New York Times, National Public Radio, The Economist, Bloomberg.com, Reason, Columbia, City Journal, the Glasgow Herald, The Age (Melbourne), Sotsial’nie i Gumanitarnie Nauk (Russian Federation), and Phoenix TV (China).
His most recent book, Barrio America: How Latino Immigrants Saved the American City (Basic Books, 2019), is a transnational history of urban revitalization that won the Caroline Bancroft History Prize, the International Latino Book Award for Best Academic Book, and second place for the Victor Villaseñor Book Award.