Jecoa’s research focuses on the Texas sodomy statutes from 1860 to 1973 and the state’s homosexual conduct statute from 1973 to the present. He is interested in the ways in which the law has both informed and been informed by cultural notions about sexuality, gender, and race. Furthermore, this work explores the construction of the U.S. State, citizenship, and sexual identities in the U.S.-Mexico Borderlands. This research is informed by the works of such scholars as French theorist Michel Foucault, anthropologist Ann Laura Stoler, and historians George Chauncey, William N. Eskridge, Jr., Margot Canaday, and Jonathan Ned Katz.

Jecoa’s most recent project focuses on the 1956 police campaign in El Paso, TX to route out homosexual activities in the city, placing it in national, state, and local contexts to provide a deeper understanding of how homosexuality and criminal sodomy was interpreted in both the law and the public eye during the Cold War.

Jecoa has presented his research at several academic conferences, including the 95th annual meeting of the Southwestern Social Science Association (2015), the 13th annual conference in Citizenship Studies at Wayne State University (2016), the 132nd annual meeting of the American Historical Association, and several conferences in and around El Paso, TX.

Recent Presentations include:

“The Thin Red Line between Privacy and Secrecy: Criminal Sodomy, Homosexuality, and the Cold War in El Paso, Texas” sponsored by the Committee on LGBT History at the American Historical Association conference, 2018.

“Marriage Homogeneity: Inscribing Heteronormativity in Obergefell v. Hodges” at the Graduate Student Research Expo, University of Texas at El Paso, 2016.

“The New Crime, the New Man: The 1943 Texas Sodomy Statute and the Making of an Other” at the Conference in Citizenship Studies, Wayne State University, 2016.

“‘With mankind or beast’: Sexuality, Race, and the Texas Sodomy Statute, 1860-1893” at the Southwestern Social Science Association conference, 2015.