Adolfho Romero – Teaching

Teaching Philosophy

Adolfho Romero presenting at a conference — Hands‑on workshop training session

Adolfho Romero teaching via video conference — Virtual classroom discussion

Adolfho Romero facilitating a hands‑on workshop with participants — Presenting on worker centers and working‑class empowerment

My approach to teaching is grounded in care, dignity, and the pursuit of critical understanding. I bring to the classroom a commitment to honoring working-class lives and histories—especially those often ignored or erased. As a first-generation Mexican and Salvadorean scholar from Humboldt Park, Chicago, I know that education can either replicate systems of exclusion or serve as a space to interrogate and undo them. I choose the latter.

I see teaching as a collective process, not a performance. It begins with listening—really listening—to students' questions, uncertainties, and insights. I work to create a classroom climate where students feel safe enough to take intellectual risks and connect their experiences with broader historical processes. My goal is not to lecture at students but to build knowledge with them. That means slowing down, asking good questions, and creating space for silence, reflection, and dialogue.

At the core of my pedagogy is a desire to help students develop a historical imagination—one that recognizes struggle, contradiction, and resilience. I approach labor and social history not as a linear march of progress, but as a series of contested efforts by ordinary people to make meaning, demand dignity, and shape the world around them. This lens opens space for complexity. It invites students to think historically about the present, to see themselves as part of broader movements, and to consider how race, class, gender, and migration shape not only labor conditions but also possibilities for solidarity.

Teaching is not separate from my research or my politics. I'm drawn to classrooms where learning emerges from critical reflection and mutual respect. I view the classroom as a space where students can build the skills to name their world and change it. That means practicing analysis rooted in evidence, offering feedback that is direct and constructive, and modeling the kind of clarity and compassion I ask of students.

What matters to me most is not that students master content, but that they come away with the confidence and tools to ask deeper questions—about power, history, and their place in it. That's what I try to cultivate each time I walk into a room. Teaching, for me, is both responsibility and privilege. It is part of the work of building a more just world.

Active Engagement

Historical Inquiry

Inclusive Discussion

Connecting Past & Present

Download my full Teaching Philosophy (PDF)

Methods & Training

Selected programs that inform my research methods and pedagogy.

Migration Spring School certificate. Cornell and Queen Mary. Malta 2025. — **Migration Spring School** QMUL & Cornell 2025 • Gozo, Malta

Decolonizing Representations certificate. Florida 2022. — **Decolonizing Representations** Florida Humanities & UF Partners 2022

Latinx Studies and Migration specialization certificate. University of Florida 2021. — **Latinx Studies & Migration** UF Center for Latin American Studies 2021

See full record on my CV

Visible items

Fieldwork Map & Career Timeline

Teaching Experience

Three Cornell sections, an upcoming graduate TA appointment, and community-based co-instruction through the Samuel Proctor Oral History Program.

Fall 2026 · Upcoming

Graduate Teaching Assistant Appointment

Cornell University · Fall 2026
Returning Graduate Teaching Assistant

Returning to Cornell teaching after leading three sections across two semesters. I will continue supporting student writing, historical analysis, and course learning through careful evaluation, clear communication, and constructive feedback.

2025

African American and Latinx Histories (ILRGL 3805)

Cornell University · Spring 2025
Graduate Teaching Assistant to Prof. Paul Ortiz · One section

Led a section within a large survey course on African American and Latinx histories, labor, culture, and social change. Guided students through historical arguments and primary sources while grading essays, giving detailed feedback, organizing Canvas materials, and holding individual student meetings.
Syllabus (PDF)

Grading, Feedback, & Student Support:

Led a section connecting course readings, primary sources, and historical argumentation
Graded essays and written assignments using course criteria
Provided constructive feedback on historical analysis, evidence, and argumentation
Organized and maintained accessible course materials in Canvas
Held student meeting hours for questions about course content, assignments, and research projects

Core Required Readings:

Piri Thomas, Down These Mean Streets
Juan Gonzalez, Harvest of Empire: A History of Latinos in America
Paul Ortiz, An African American and Latinx History of the United States
Blair Kelley, Black Folk: The Roots of the Black Working Class
August Wilson, The Piano Lesson
Martín Espada, Zapata's Disciple
Johanna Fernández, The Young Lords: A Radical History

Student Feedback Highlights:

"Super kind, goes out of his way to help students, and very knowledgeable. Makes the classroom feel like a safe space."
"Great in the one-to-one setting... clear with instructions."
"He ensures students have a strong grasp on course material and is always willing to help anyone out."
Praised for making time after office hours and for "stimulating deeper thinking about the subject."

2024

Introduction to US Labor History (ILRGL 1100)

Cornell University · Fall 2024
Graduate Teaching Assistant to Prof. Paul Ortiz · Two sections

Led two discussion sections in U.S. labor history, helping students interpret major labor struggles, organizing traditions, and their political consequences. Graded assignments, provided detailed feedback, facilitated discussion, and supported the course’s day-to-day learning environment.
Syllabus (PDF)

Role Highlights:

Led two recurring discussion sections in U.S. labor history
Graded written assignments and provided detailed, constructive feedback
Supported course delivery on labor struggles, organizing, and their political consequences
Facilitated classroom discussions connecting historical evidence to contemporary questions
Assisted with course administration and student questions

2021

Samuel Proctor Oral History Program Internship

University of Florida · Spring 2021
Co-instructor · SPOHP Internship Seminar

Co-taught an internship seminar on community-based oral history and first-generation students in higher education. Students researched the Machen Florida Opportunity Scholars Program while learning interview methods, digital production, and public outreach.
Syllabus (PDF) · Interview Playlist

Co-instruction & Methods:

Introduced community-based oral-history methodology and interview ethics
Supported student research on first-generation college access and equity
Taught digital production, transcription, and public-outreach practices
Guided students as they processed interviews for long-term public access

2020

Samuel Proctor Oral History Program Internship

University of Florida · Fall 2020
Co-instructor · SPOHP Internship Seminar

Co-taught a community-based oral-history seminar in partnership with St. Patrick Catholic Church. Students learned research, interview, processing, and public-history methods while contributing to a community history timeline.
Syllabus (PDF)

Community Partnership & Co-instruction:

Direct collaboration with St. Patrick Catholic Church; students accessed, scanned, and interpreted archival records dating back decades
Introduced oral-history methods through hands-on research and interview processing
Co-guided student archival research, digital production, and public outreach
Explored discrimination, civil-rights activism, and the Sisters of St. Joseph's educational mission

Course Texts & Perspectives

Below are some of the books that anchor my courses. Each text opens a window onto the lived experiences of workers, activists, and artists. Scroll through the gallery to explore the covers and learn more about what we read.

Cover of Down These Mean Streets by Piri Thomas — **Down These Mean Streets**
Piri Thomas’s memoir follows his life in Spanish Harlem. It chronicles poverty, street gangs, racism, addiction and his struggle to define his identity as a dark‑complexioned Puerto Rican.

Cover of Harvest of Empire: A History of Latinos in America by Juan Gonzalez — **Harvest of Empire**
Juan Gonzalez presents a non‑fiction account of how U.S. policies throughout the Americas led to mass Latinx migration; his updated narrative explains the role the United States played in shaping these movements.

Cover of An African American and Latinx History of the United States by Paul Ortiz — **An African American and Latinx History of the United States**
Paul Ortiz’s intersectional history centers Black, Latinx and Indigenous voices, linking civil‑rights struggles, labor organizing and imperialism from the 18th century through the Day Without Immigrants.

Cover of Black Folk: The Roots of the Black Working Class by Blair L. M. Kelley — **Black Folk**
Blair L. M. Kelley uses personal narratives to show how Black laborers built networks of community and resistance amid racism and segregation in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

Cover of The Piano Lesson by August Wilson — **The Piano Lesson**
August Wilson’s Pulitzer Prize–winning play is set in 1936 Pittsburgh. It follows the Charles family and an heirloom piano carved by an enslaved ancestor; siblings Boy Willie and Berniece debate selling it, exploring heritage and the legacy of slavery.

Cover of Zapata's Disciple by Martín Espada — **Zapata’s Disciple**
Poet Martín Espada interweaves essays and poems to challenge social injustice. He chronicles censorship battles, critiques corporate exploitation and defends the dignity of Spanish‑speaking communities.

Cover of The Young Lords: A Radical History by Johanna Fernández — **The Young Lords: A Radical History**
Johanna Fernández provides a definitive account of the Young Lords. She shows how Puerto Rican youth redefined protest by occupying hospitals, blocking traffic and linking local problems to global struggles.

Cover of The Slave Ship: A Human History by Marcus Rediker — **The Slave Ship: A Human History**
Marcus Rediker explores the horrific conditions aboard slave ships between 1700 and 1807, drawing on primary records to connect the transatlantic slave trade, capitalist exploitation and acts of resistance.

Cover of Fight in the Fields: Cesar Chavez and the Farmworkers’ Movement — **Fight in the Fields**
An illustrated history of Cesar Chavez and the United Farm Workers that combines archival photographs and narrative to trace the evolution of the farmworkers’ movement and its impact on labor and civil‑rights struggles.

Cover of Holding the Line: Women in the Great Arizona Mine Strike of 1983 by Barbara Kingsolver — **Holding the Line**
Barbara Kingsolver’s nonfiction debut recounts the 1983 Phelps Dodge copper strike in Arizona, focusing on the miners’ wives and mothers who formed picket lines, faced arrests and violence, and discovered their political power during the long standoff.

Cover of Lucy Parsons: Freedom, Equality & Solidarity — **Lucy Parsons: Freedom, Equality & Solidarity**
A collection of speeches and essays by labor radical Lucy Parsons, whose writings championed the rights of the poor, the unemployed and political prisoners and reveal her pivotal role in anarchist and workers’ movements.

Cover of Recording Oral History: A Guide for the Humanities and Social Sciences by Valerie Yow — **Recording Oral History**
Valerie Yow’s practical manual explains how to plan, conduct, transcribe and interpret oral‑history interviews, addressing ethical issues and providing methodological guidance for researchers in the humanities and social sciences.

Cover of Beyond Women’s Words — **Beyond Women’s Words**
Edited by Katrina Srigley and colleagues, this collection explores feminist oral‑history methodologies and the ways gender, race and class shape personal narratives, drawing on examples from immigrant communities and Indigenous women’s activism.

Cover of The Oral History Reader — **The Oral History Reader**
Edited by Robert Perks and Alistair Thomson, this widely used reader compiles classic and contemporary essays that examine theory, ethics and practice in oral history, offering insights into interview techniques, memory and digital media.

What Students Say

“Adolfho was incredibly approachable and made it easy to ask questions—even beyond class material. He connected class content to real-world labor struggles in a way that made history feel urgent.”

“He pushed us to engage with difficult topics like race, class, and labor injustice. I left each section with something to think about.”

“Adolfho was one of the best TAs I've had. His feedback on our essays was detailed and helped me grow as a writer.”

“He encouraged participation by creating a safe space where every opinion mattered. It never felt like busywork—it felt like building understanding together.”

“Very responsive, clear expectations, and genuinely cares about student learning. One of the most thoughtful TAs I've had.”

“He helped connect us to the professor and made sure our concerns were heard. He was super accessible and always respectful.”

“Adolfho is extremely professional but creates a warm and welcoming environment with his students and tries to build personal relationships.”

“He is very knowledgeable and very open to helping everyone.”

“Great in giving detailed feedback and actually writing new perspectives about the content in feedback.”

“Makes time for students, creates inclusive and meaningful conversations, and allows students to ask questions.”

A classroom should help us name the world—and imagine changing it.