THE JOB
HISTORY SERVES
How scholarly research can impact communities .
BY DAVID SILVERBERG
LIVING IN SAN DIEGO , Kelly Lytle Hernández ’ 96 couldn ’ t have been older than eight when she witnessed something so troubling it had a lasting effect on the scholar she would become : She was playing in the schoolyard and came across her friend , crying . Her uncle had been deported the night before .
And as a student at UC San Diego when Proposition 187 was passed , she volunteered at a small health clinic where she helped migrant workers who feared a hospital visit would mean they ’ d never see their loved ones again . “ I saw how painful the U . S . immigration regime is for families ,” she says .
These experiences affected Lytle Hernández so deeply she would dedicate her life to uncovering the rise of U . S . immigration as a story of race , policing and mass incarceration .
This focus has resulted in two books ; a UCLA professorship in history , African American studies and urban planning ; and a unique big data project that maps the fiscal and human costs of mass incarceration in Los Angeles . It ’ s a body of work that recently earned her a MacArthur Fellowship , unofficially known as the “ Genius Grant .”
Lytle Hernández ’ s academic roots run deep : her father , Cecil Lytle , taught in the music department for 34 years , and was a longtime provost of Marshall College and a founding member of The Preuss School at UC San Diego . “ I pretty much grew up on campus ,” she says with a laugh . “ I remember back when there were many more trees and a lot fewer buildings .”
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TRITON | WINTER 2020