Photo of Soto, Nico

Nico Soto

Graduate Student

History

Email:

nsoto8@uic.edu

CV Link:

Nico Soto

About

Nico Soto is a sixth-year PhD candidate researching Mexican farmworker migration and settlement in the upper Midwest. Working under Dr. Adam Goodman and Dr. Lilia Fernandez, Nico's dissertation is a history of migrant farmworkers in a specific industry, pickles, from roughly 1942 to 1994, with an emphasis on the post-Bracero decades. His work traces how seasonal Mexican labor has underpinned the robust industry for over 75 years.

 

Nico currently holds a Dissertation Completion Fellowship in the Latin American and Latino Studies Department at UIC for the 2025-2026 academic year. Nico is actively on the job market and working to finish his dissertation with the intent to graduate in Spring 2026. His work has been featured at various conferences, including LAWCHA, OAH, and the Midwestern History Conference. Nico also has an article forthcoming in the Journal of American Ethnic History slated for publication in 2027.

 

Nico is from Milwaukee, Wisconsin. As a proud native of the region, Nico is passionate about uplifting the history of Latinos and how they have remade the Midwest heartland for more than a century.

Notable Honors:

2025-2026, Dissertation Completion Fellowship, University of Illinois at Chicago

2024-2025, Emerging Scholar in Residence, Institute on Race and Public Policy, University of Illinois at Chicago

2023-2024, Provost's Award for Graduate Research, University of Illinois at Chicago

2022-2023, Crossing Latinidades Mellon Fellowship, University of Illinois at Chicago

2022-2023, Peer Researcher, Race Laws in the U.S. Southwest: Research Working Group to Document Laws and Their Impacts 1836-Present, Crossing Latinidades Humanities Research Initiative

Courses Taught (TA):

Hist 101: Western Civilization Since 1648

Hist 103: Early America: From Colonization to Civil War and Reconstruction

Hist 106: The World Since 1400: Converging Worlds, New Circulations (World History)

Hist 289: Latino/a History