Lourdes Gutierrez Nájera, PhD

she/hers/ella, Associate Professor, Affiliated Faculty in Anthropology, Affiliated Faculty in Latin American Studies, Fairhaven Faculty Member

About

Lourdes Gutiérrez Nájera is chair of Ethnic Studies and associate professor of Latinx Studies. She teaches courses Citizenship & Belonging, Borders & Boundaries, Globalization and Migration. Her primary research has produced a hemispheric approach to Indigeneity and migration bridging the fields of Latinx, Latin American, Indigenous, and Migration Studies. Her essays highlight the ways that Zapotec Indigenous people negotiate exclusionary practices of belonging, as well as the role of settler colonialism in Latinx Indigenous formation in the U.S. Her research have been published in numerous journals including: American Anthropologist, the Association of Mexican American Educators (AMAE) Journal, Identities: Global Studies in Culture and Power, Practicing Anthropology, and American Quarterly. She is also a co-editor (with M. Bianet Castellanos and Arturo Aldama) Comparative Indigeneities of the Américas: Toward a Hemispheric Approach (University of Arizona Press 2012), a collection of essays examining indigenous experiences across the Américas.

Current Courses

ETHN 203: Introduction to Latinx Studies

ETHN 314: Latinx Migrants in the U.S.

ETHN 302: Ethnic Studies Research Methods

Selected Publications

"Settler Erasures and Reclaiming Indigeneity in City of Ghosts." Co-authored with M. Bianet Castellanos. Revue internationale de politique comparée. 2019. 31(2), 101-122. https://doi.org/10.3917/ripc.312.0101.

"Inmigración zapoteca; Expresiones de agrupamiento y pertenencia." Yalalag: un pueblo zapoteco transnatcional, comunalidad, migración, y reproducción de la vida. Alejandra Aquino Moreschi and Adriana Cruz Manjarrez (eds). Mexico: CIESAS. 2024. pp. 265-286.

“Zapotec Death and Mourning across Transnational Frontiers.” In Transnational Death. Eerika Koskinen-Koivisto, Samira Saramo, and Hanna Snellman (Eds). Studia Fennica Ethnologica 17 Series. Finland: Suomalaisen Kirjallisuuden Seura. 2019. Pp. 85-99.

“Transnational Settler Colonial Formations and Global Capital: A consideration of Indigenous Transnational Migrants.” Co-authored with Korinta Maldonado. Forum on Settler Colonialism in Latin America. American Quarterly. 2017. 69(4): 809-821.  

Comparative Indigeneities of the Américas. Co-edited Anthology with M. Bianet Castellanos and ArturoAldama. University of Arizona Press, Critical Issues in Indigenous Studies Series. 2012.