About the author

David Patrick McKenzie is finishing his first year as a part-time student in the History Ph.D. program at George Mason University.

Raised in San Antonio, Texas, he began his freshman year at the University of Pittsburgh thinking he would study European history and remain in the northeastern region of the United States. Then, he attended a lecture about the Hispanicization of the United States, then took a Latin American history class, and was hooked on that subject. At the same time, when thinking of a summer research project on history and memory, he took a professor's suggestion to study memory and mysteries of the Battle of the Alamo. The next summer, that led to a job as a history interpreter at the Alamo, and thus he was even further hooked.

After graduating from Pitt in 2002 with a degree in History and Political Science, and a concentration in Latin American Studies, David went back to work at the Alamo before going off to the Peace Corps in El Salvador, where he lived as the only gringo in a village of 500 people. After 10 months, several illnesses, and 30 pounds of weight loss, he returned to the United States—and again worked at the Alamo.

He came to Washington in 2004 for a M.A. in Museum Studies from George Washington University, which he completed in 2006. He then worked for an exhibition design firm for two years as a content developer before going to a local ethnic historical society. When he started doing his own research, he realized the time might be right to go back for a Ph.D. So that is what he is doing.

David studies both U.S. and Latin American history, particularly in the 18th and 19th centuries, and particularly the intersection of the two. U.S. history is his major field, some to-be-determined variation of Latin American history is one minor field, and digital history is his other minor field.