Southwest Borderlands Initiative Faculty
Miguel Astor Aguilera
Associate Professor
School of Historical, Philosophical and Religious Studies
College of Liberal Arts and Sciences
Professor Aguilera conducts ethnographic research on the religious life among the traditional Maya in contemporary Mexico and Central America.
Alfredo J. Artiles
Emeritus Professor
Professor Artiles' research examines the implications of the role of culture in learning for v construction of competence in two contexts: special education placement practices and teacher learning in urban multicultural schools.
Carol Baldwin
Emeritus Professor
College of Nursing and Health Innovation
Professor Baldwin studies cultural folk health practices and their applications to health promotion, and differences in the way sleep problems are experienced and expressed by gender fand culture.
Angela Banks
Charles J. Merriam Distinguished Professor of Law
Sandra Day O'Connor College of Law
Angela M. Banks is an immigration and citizenship expert whose research focuses on membership and belonging in democratic societies. Her scholarship has appeared or is forthcoming in leading American law review journals such as the Emory Law Journal, the William & Mary Law Review and Brooklyn Law Review.
David Becerra
Associate Professor
School of Social Work
Watts College of Public Service and Community Solutions
Professor Becerra's work and research interests focus on Latino adolescents and young adults in the Southwest, in the areas of education, job skills training to address poverty and deter drug trafficking activities. He also works with Latino migrant farm and dairy workers to provide culturally modified treatment for trauma related to immigration, acculturation, stress and substance abuse issues.
Bryan Brayboy
President's Professor
School of Social Transformation
College of Liberal Arts and Sciences
Professor Brayboy received his PhD from the University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia. His areas of specialization are anthropology of education; sociology of education; higher education; and American Indian education.
Noe Crespo
Adjunct Faculty
College of Health Solutions
Noe Crespo's research interests are on reducing health disparities and community-based obesity prevention programs for Latino children. He has conducted community-based interventions in elementary schools and recreations centers, and his current projects involve community partnerships with local clinics and recreations centers to develop, implement, and evaluate physical activity programs for overweight and obese Latino children living in South Phoenix.
Rodolfo Espino
Associate Professor
School of Politics and Global Studies
College of Liberal Arts and Sciences
Professor Espino's primary research and teaching interests are in the fields of minority politics, political behavior and political methodology. His reasearch interests include examining Latino political empowerment, the campaign rhetoric of Latino candidates and Spanish political campaign ads, and the political behavior of whites in response to Latinos.
Donald Fixico
Regents and Distinguished Foundation Professor of History
School of Historical, Philosophical and Religious Studies
College of Liberal Arts and Sciences
Professor Fixico is a policy historian and ethnohistorian whose work focuses on American Indians, oral history and the U.S. West. He has published a dozen books and is currently working on a textbook on American Indian History, another on Indian Territory and Opening of the West, and has in press two forthcoming books.
Amira de la Garza
Associate Professor
Hugh Downs School of Human Communication
College of Liberal Arts and Sciences
Professor De la Garza's research is in the area of borderlands identities, with a special interest in postcolonial methodology for ethnography and multi-genre autoethnographic texts and performance.
Alan Gómez
Associate Professor
School of Social Transformation
College of Liberal Arts and Sciences
Organized around the over-arching theme of cultures of resistance, Professor Alan Eladio Gómez’ research topics include: history of social movements in Mexico, the U.S. and the U.S.-Mexico borderlands; the political cultures of U.S./Third World Left radicalism; the relational logics of white supremacy, violence, law and state formation; prison rebellions and incarceration logics; the political geography of urban development; situated knowledges, radical pedagogies and neo-liberal education; and the intersections of gender, revolution, human rights and international solidarity.
Magda Hinojosa
Associate Professor
School of Politics and Global Studies
College of Liberal Arts and Sciences
Professor Magda Hinojosa's research focuses on the political participation of women in Latin America and, in particular, she examines institutional barriers to women's descriptive representation. Her most recent project assessed the impact of candidate selection procedures on women's ability to enter political office as mayors and council members in Chile and Mexico.
Francisco Lara-Valencia
Associate Professor
School of Transborder Studies
College of Liberal Arts and Sciences
Professor Lara-Valencia studies regional and urban development in the U.S.-Mexico borderlands, and their impacts on the environment, health and social equity.
Amelia Malagamba-Ansótegui
Assistant Professor
School of Art
Herberger Institute for Design and the Arts
Professor Malagamba-Ansótegui's scholarly work is centered in Chicana/o, Latina/o and Border art and cultures with a transnational and multidisciplinary approach. Professor Malagamba-Ansótegui’s research addresses a variety of topics including Latina/o visual arts and culture, border art and Mexican photography. Her curatorial work includes exhibitions in El Museo de la Estampa in Mexico City, Austin Museum of Art and Centro Cultural Tijuana among other art speces.
President's Professor
School of Transborder Studies
College of Liberal Arts and Sciences
Professor McConnell's research interests include Latina/o Demography, especially the growth and change of Latino populations in non-traditional areas of the United States; Latino migration; homeownership and housing issues related to wealth accumulation; and the collection and public dissemination of racial/ethnic data in federal sources.
Peter Murrieta
Director-In-Residence
Sidney Poitier New American Film School
Herberger Institute for Design and the Arts
The recipient of the Imagen Foundation’s Norman Lear Writer’s Award and Director-In-Residence at the Sidney Poitier New American Film School, is a multiple Emmy-Winner known for award-winning series. Peter has developed projects that have contributed to the careers of the industry’s biggest Latino stars. His extensive experience and commitment to creating shows that serve as star vehicles for LatinX actors that also achieve mainstream success, is second to none in the industry. Peter, who's Mexican-American, created the acclaimed WB series, “Greetings from Tucson,” a groundbreaking series that was one of the first ever to feature a diverse, bi-racial family, set in Peter's native Arizona.
Adriana Perez
Assistant Professor
Hartford Center of Geriatric Nursing Excellence
College of Nursing and Health Innovation
Professor Perez's program of research focuses on cardiovascular health promotion among older diverse populations. She has developed and tested a theory-based motivational intervention to promote physical activity among older Hispanic women in the Phoenix metropolitan area. As a Health and Aging Policy Fellow, she will be working with the CDC on the translation of effective interventions that promote healthy aging in sustainable community programs.
Maria Garcia Perez
Assistant Professor
School of Transborder Studies
College of Liberal Arts and Sciences
Professor Hilda García is a social epidemiologist and demographer with a primary research interest in the influence of morbidity and health-seeking behavior of women in urban areas of northern Mexico and the Southwest borderlands.
Armando A. Piña
Associate Professor
Department of Psychology
College of Liberal Arts and Sciences
Professor Piña is interested in the study of intra-individual level risk factors in the development of anxiety disorders in youths and the evaluation of psychosocial interventions for use with this population.
Luis F.B. Plascencia
Associate Professor
Department of Psychology
College of Liberal Arts and Sciences
A PhD in Social Anthropology from The University of Texas at Austin. Professor Plascencia studies citizenship, migration, and guestworker programs, as well as popular culture in the Mexican-origin community in the United States.
Mark Ramirez
Associate Professor
School of Politics and Global Studies
College of Liberal Arts and Sciences
Professor Ramirez' research focuses on questions relating to public opinion, representation, political communication, race and politics and research methodology.
Elias Robles-Sotelo
Associate Professor
Division of Social and Behavioral Sciences
New College of Interdisciplinary Arts and Sciences
Professor Robles-Sotelo studies behavior processes in health promotion and maintenance, and develops systems to facilitate access to health services.
Rick Rodriguez
Southwest Borderlands Initiative Professor, Professor of Practice
Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication
Professor Rodriguez leads a cross-disciplinary specialization and multimedia coverage of issues related to Latinos and the U.S.-Mexico border.
Vanessa Ruiz
Director, Cronkite News Borderlands, Professor of Practice
Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication
Vanessa Ruiz directs the borderlands coverage team at Cronkite News, helps lead the Spanish-language newscast, Cronkite Noticias, and works on special productions at Arizona PBS, including “Catalyst: Shaping the Future,” a weekly exploration of science, technology and sustainability in the Southwest.
Fernanda Santos
Southwest Borderlands Initiative Professor
Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication
Fernanda Santos is a Southwest Borderlands Initiative professor of practice, teaching short-form and long-form narrative journalism. She previously spent 12 years at The New York Times, including five years as its Phoenix Bureau chief.
Gabriel Q. Shaibi
Associate Professor
College of Nursing and Health Innovation
Professor Shaibi's research examines obesity-related health disparities including insulin resistance and type 2 diabetes in the Latino population. His projects include community-based interventions to improve the health and quality of life of obese Latino youth.
Seline Szkupinski-Quiroga
Program Director
School of Transborder Studies
College of Liberal Arts and Sciences
Professor Szkupinski Quiroga studies discourses of race, gender and identity as they emerge in illness narratives. She is the director of ASU's CAMP Scholars Project.
Adriana J. Umaña-Taylor
Foundation Professor
School of Social and Family Dynamics
College of Liberal Arts and Sciences
Professor Umaña-Taylor's research interests include adolescents’ ethnic identity formation, familial socialization processes, and psychosocial well-being (e.g., psychological health, academic achievement).
Luis E. Zayas
Assistant Professor
School of Social Work
College of Public Service and Community Solutions
Professor Zayas' areas of expertise are in applied medical anthropology, health behavior and health promotion, health inequalities, heath workforce development, as well as in the anthropology of development. His research has focused on coping with and management of chronic medical conditions, particularly asthma and diabetes, among Latinos and African Americans.