Dr. Cheryl Ana Jimenez Frei

Dr. Cheryl Ana Jiménez Frei is an Associate Professor of History, co-director of the Public History Program, and affiliated faculty in the Latin American and Latinx Studies Program at UWEC. She teaches various courses in Public History, History of Latin America, and World History, and her research specializations are in memory and the built environment, monuments, visual culture, oral history, digital history, and Argentina and the Southern Cone. Her work has been published in the Journal of Latin American Studies, The Public Historian, and Collections: A Journal for Museum and Archive Professionals.

Her current work as a core member of the Wisconsin Latinx History Collective includes a multi-year project to create a comprehensive digital edition site documenting, preserving, and providing public access to artifacts and stories on the rich history and contributions of Latinx communities in Wisconsin. The project, funded by the National Archives and the Mellon Foundation, will create a digital history site compiling research and educational materials including archival sources, digital exhibits, and lesson plans.

Dr. Jiménez Frei is an Academic Advisory Committee member of the Contested Histories Initiative at the Institute for Historical Justice and Reconciliation, The Hague, The Netherlands. She is also the co-founder of the Western Wisconsin COVID-19 Archive, awarded the 2021 Wisconsin Historical Society Governor’s Award for Archival Innovation, and Voces Del Campo/Rural Voices, an oral history project dedicated to documenting the stories and experiences of Latinx populations across rural western Wisconsin. She sits on the board of the Chippewa Valley Museum and the Wisconsin Federation of Museums, and is an active scholar in both academic and public spheres, often reaching out to public audiences through media, public forums, and podcasts. She has participated in podcasts discussing subjects including monument controversies and music and collective memory.

Her research and public history collaborations with UWEC students and community partners include a partnership with the Keweenaw National Historic Park, a unit of the U.S. National Park Service located in Calumet, MI; exhibit research, design, and implementation in the Irvine Park Welcome Center in Chippewa Falls, WI; oral history and digital archive work for Voces del Campo and the Western WI COVID-19 Archive; and a bilingual Spanish/English digital exhibit on the history of public health crises in rural Wisconsin.

Dr. Jiménez Frei is currently working on a book manuscript titled “Carved, Cast, and Contested: Monuments, Memory, and Identity in Argentina,” under contract by the University of Nebraska Press. She is fascinated with all things Latin American, and leads annual student immersion/service learning experiences to Puerto Rico and Argentina.