Leo Chávez
Professor of Anthropology (PhD: Stanford, 1982)
office: Social and Behavioral Sciences Gateway (SBSG) 3326
phone: (949) 824-4054
email: lchavez at uci dot edu
Professor Chavez's research examines various issues related to transnational migration, including immigrant families and households, labor market participation, motivations for migration, the use of medical services, and media constructions of "immigrant" and "nation." His books include Shadowed Lives: Undocumented Immigrants in American Society (Harcourt Brace Jovanovich 1992, 1997 2nd edition), which provides an ethnographic account of Mexican and Central American undocumented immigrants in San Diego County, California. Covering Immigration: Popular Images and the Politics of the Nation (University of California Press 2001) examines representations of immigrants in the media and popular discourse in the United States through the lens of magazine covers and their related articles. His newest book is The Latino Threat: Constructing Immigrants, Citizens and the Nation (Stanford University Press 2008), which examines issues of anti-Latino discourse, struggles over the meaning of citizenship, and role of media spectacles in society in relation to the politics of reproduction, organ transplants, the Minuteman Project, and immigrant marches and protests. Recent medically related articles include "Beliefs Matter: Cultural Beliefs and the Use of Cervical Cancer Screening Tests;" and "Immigration and Medical Anthropology" (2003). See also, "Culture Change and Cultural Reproduction: Lessons from Research on Transnational Migration" (2006); and “Commentary: The Condition of Illegality” (2007).
Information concerning Prof. Chávez's relation to Chicano/Latino Studies.
Link to Interview with Leo Chavez on his research on immigration.
Selected Publications 
The Latino Threat: Constructing Immigrants, Citizens, and the Nation. Stanford University Press.
Covering Immigration: Popular Images and the Politics of the Nation.
California: UC Press, 2001. (Book information.)
Shadowed Lives: Undocumented Immigrants in American Society.
Harcourt, Brace, Javanovich College Publishers, 1992. (Second Ed. 1998).
"Wasting Away in Neoliberal-ville: Mexican Immigrant Women’s Views of Cervical Cancer, Social Inequality, and Gender Relations"
In Confronting Cancer: Metaphors, Advocacy, and Anthropology. Juliet McMullin and Diane Weiner, editors. School for Advanced Research Press. Santa Fe, 2009
"Culture Change and Cultural Reproduction: Lessons from Research on Transnational Migration."
In Globalization and Change in Fifteen Cultures: Born in one World and Living in Another. Janice Stockard and George Spindler, editors. Belmont, CA: Thomson-Wadsworth, 2006.
"A Glass Half Empty: Latina Reproduction and Public Discourse."
Human Organization 63.2 (2004):173-188.
“Beliefs Matter: Cultural Beliefs and the Use of Cervical-Cancer Screening Tests."Chavez, Leo R., Juliet M. McMullin, Shiraz I. Mishra, and F. Allan Hubbell. American Anthropologist 103(4)1114-1129, 2001.
"Immigration and Medical Anthropology."
In American Arrivals: Anthropology Engages the New Immigration. Santa Fe: SAR Press, 2003.
"Undocumented Immigrants in Orange County, California: A Comparative Analysis." 
(With F. Allan Hubbell, Shhiraz I. Mishra, and R. Burciaga Valdez) International Migration Review 31 (1997): 88-107.
"Immigration Reform and Nativism: The Nationalist Response to the Transnationalist Challenge."
Immigrants Out!: The New Nativism and the Anti-Immigrant Impulse in the United States. Ed. Juan Perea. New York: New York UP, 1996.
"The Power of the Imagined Community: The Settlement of Undocumented Mexicans and Central Americans in the United States."
American Anthropologist 96.1 (1994): 52-73.
Recent Awards and Honors
Feb. 12, 2003 Horizons of Knowledge Lecture, University of Indiana, Bloomington.
April 7, 2003 George and Mary Foster Distinguished Lecturer in Anthropology, "Cultural beliefs and Cancer Risk Factors: A Study of the Perceptions of Hispanic and Anglo Women and Physicians." Department of Anthropology, Southern Methodist University
2003-2004 Distinguished Faculty Visitor, The Center for Ideas and Society, University of California, Riverside. (Winter and Spring Quarters)
2004-2007 Co-PI Russell Sage Grant, "The New Second Generation." $1.7 million.
June 2005 Mesa Court Faculty Member of the Month for June 2005. Awarded by UCI students residing in Mesa Court residential dorms.
April 2006 School of American Research, Santa Fe, New Mexico, one-week seminar on "The Anthropology of Cancer."
Recent PresentationsChavez, Leo R. and Roberto G. Gonzales. “Illegality, Belonging, and Claiming Citizenship Among 1.5 Generation Undocumented Immigrants.” Paper presented at the annual meetings of the AAA, November 19, 2008, San Francisco, California.
Keynote speaker, talk titled “Migration, National Identity, and Citizenship in a Transnational World.” A joint conference by Osaka University, Japan, and the University of Sao Paulo, Brazil. Conference title: Migrations and Identities: Conflicts and New Horizons. Osaka University, Japan. August 25-26, 2008.
Keynote address, Inaugural Conference of the Interdisciplinary Research Group, “E Pluribus Unum? Ethnic Identities in Processes of Transnational Integration in the Americas.”
ZiF (Center for Interdisciplinary Research), Bielefeld University, Germany. Professor Josef Raab, organizer. October 8 - 11, 2008.
TIES academic conference. International School of social Science and Humanities, University of Amsterdam, Amsterdam, Netherlands, December 11-13, 2008.
Colloquium speaker, Faculty of Philosophy, University of Granada, Granada, Spain “The Latino Threat.” March 30, 2009.
Conference presentation, “The Latino Threat.” Conference: Stories of Nationhood in Plural Societies, organized by Aarhus University, Aarhus, Denmark, May 14-15, 2009.
Colloquium speaker, book presentation, The Latino Threat: Constructing Immigrants, Citizens, and the Nation. Invited by the California Cultures in Comparative Perspectives program and the Center for U.S.-Mexican Studies, UC San Diego, May 30, 2009.
Conference presentation, conference: "Social Science Research on Immigration: The Role of Transnational Migration, Communities, & Policy,” NSF sponsored, held at Arizona State University, Sept 10-12, 2009.
Colloquium speaker, “Media Spectacles and Immigrant Lives: The Latino Threat,” invited by the Population Studies Center, Brown University, September 17, 2009.
Conference presentation, “The Latino Threat.” Conference: Undocumented Hispanic Migration: On the Margins of a Dream. Connecticut College, New London, Connecticut, October 16-18, 2009.
CHAVEZ, Leo R. (UC Irvine) and Roberto G. Gonazales (School of Social Work, University of Washington). “Citizenship, Objectivity, and Illegality: The end(s) of Identity.” 2009 Presidential Panel on "Dilemmas of Citizenship," the annual meetings of the AAA, December 2-6, 2009, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.