In Sensenbrenner Hall 203B, blank spaces on the wall are few and far between. The glossy, white walls are hidden behind posters, history books and Milwaukee Brewers memorabilia — making Sergio González’s office not just a workspace, but an ode to Wisconsin’s history.
Born to Mexican immigrants, the associate professor of history has an emphasis on Latino studies, represented on the office walls with posters that read “Migration is beautiful” and “¡No pasarán!” — “They shall not pass!”
Bookshelves act as runners along his walls, holding history in hundreds of thousands of pages. González has read most of them but also spends his time writing his own. His most recent book, “Strangers No Longer,” was released in 2024.
The Brewers bobbleheads, just over his right shoulder, were collected during his summer internship with the team’s community foundation in 2009.
But, just like the walls in his office, there is little blank space in González’s calendar. When he’s not teaching, reading, spending time with his family or watching the Brewers, the middle school teacher-turned-college professor can be found in Madison, where he co-hosts an educational TV show for PBS Wisconsin.
“Acting is just like when you’re in front of students — you’re doing a bit of a performance,” González said. “You’re trying to keep people engaged, you’re trying to make information accessible.”
“The Look Back” is a history series for fourth-to-sixth grade teachers to use in their classrooms. Episodes, each roughly ten minutes long, tell the history of Wisconsin through artifacts from the Wisconsin Historical Society.
González is one of five historians to host the show, all of whom have day jobs outside of PBS. In his episodes, González has done show-and-tell of bicycles, maps and even an airplane from 1929. That episode, “Airway Beacon,” was nominated for a regional Emmy.
But even with the award nomination, the aviation episode isn’t González’s favorite.
Instead, his top memory is showing off a worn-down bunk bed in a 2024 episode called “Ripe for Change.” The bed was used by migrant farm workers in Wisconsin in the mid-1900s, and because he focuses on Latino history, González helped write the script. In the episode, he talks about the history of migrant agricultural work in Wisconsin and the conditions workers faced.
“I believe very deeply that my obligation as an academic is to take all of this knowledge and make it as accessible as possible to as many people as possible,” González said.
As a first-generation college student, González said, his goal is to convert his work into something that he can share with families like his own.
González joined the show at its inception in 2022, at the invitation of producer David Boffa and then-coordinating producer Mia Forslund. With his experience as a middle school teacher, González said, he jumped at the opportunity.
“We were looking for younger, early-career historians or public historians, people who are not your traditional idea of what a historian might be,” Boffa said. “It was pretty clear he was going to be a good fit.”
Boffa said episodes usually take six to eight weeks to go from an idea to the air. Hosts are involved in each stage of the process, from the initial brainstorm sessions to the interviews to scriptwriting, all scheduled around their 9-to-5 jobs.
On April 10, González’s most recent episode hit the internet, a feature on Racine’s Little Golden Books. To him, the episode is among the most special he’s worked on, and not just because he pitched the idea — rather, it’s because his 6-year-old daughter joined him onscreen as an actress.
“That’s so cool because she gets to have some screen time,” González said. “When would that have happened in my life had I never been part of the show?”
Back in Milwaukee, González also works as a faculty affiliate for MKE Roots, a Marquette University professor’s project devoted to developing local education. Melissa Gibson, program director, said González’s experience as an educator and Latino historian has made him invaluable to the program.
“He’s just so real,” Gibson said. “He’s clearly brilliant, but he knows how to talk about his vast knowledge of history in really accessible ways.”
That teaching style also includes an animated personality, which González said stems from his experience as a teacher. Being energetic, he said, is a key reason why he enjoys hosting “The Look Back.”
“It’s allowed me to stay connected to middle school teaching,” González said. “I love being a college professor, but there’s a goofiness that you are allowed to be as a middle school teacher that is a little bit harder to access in the college classroom.”
The onscreen silliness has made González a favorite in classrooms around Milwaukee, Gibson said. Students who use MKE Roots’ curriculum and watch “The Look Back” have turned to González as the subject of research projects and presentations, some even dressing up as him for a living wax museum.
“He’s a local celebrity to our students and teachers,” Gibson said.
Beyond classrooms, González’s wife will bring praises of his show home from work, he said.
But, unlike many celebrities, he does not retreat to a trophy room during the day.
Instead, he sits at his desk in Sensenbrenner Hall, reading, writing and planning his next appearance on screen — surrounded not by adoring fans, but with the company of books, posters and Milwaukee Brewers bobbleheads.
This story was written by Lance Schulteis. He can be reached at [email protected].
