Leo Chávez
Professor of Anthropology (PhD: Stanford, 1982)
office: Social Science Plaza B, 4269
phone: (949) 824-7602
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
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).
"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 PresentationsKeynote address, “Invasion and Reconquest: The Media and the Construction of an Anti-Mexican Immigration Discourse.” National Association of Bilingual Educators Conference, February 10, 2007. San Jose, California.
Discussant, panel: Resisting Race and Racism in Disease. Conference on Race, Human Variation, and Disease: Consensus and Frontiers. March 14-17, 2007. Arlie Center, Warrenton, Virginia. Organized by the American Anthropological Association.
Keynote speaker, at Immigration, Citizenship and Mass Media: A Symposium. March 23, 2007. Organized by the Department of Communication Studies, The Howard R. Marsh Center for Journalistic Performance, The University of Michigan, Ann Arbor.
Featured speaker, Latin American Studies speaker series, University of Arkansas, Fayetteville. April 3, 2007.
Conference participant and presentation on “Religion and the Children of Immigrants: A Comparison of Latino and Asian Groups.” The Conference: The Immigrant Second Generation in Europe and the United States. Bellagio Conference Center, Rockefeller Foundation, Bellagio, Italy, September 19-23, 2007.
Featured speaker, “The Latino Threat: How the Media Constructs Alarmist Discourse.” November 14, 2007, Loyola University Chicago. Sponsored by the Anthropology Department and the Latin American Studies Program.
“The Invasion, Reconquest, and National Security Threat Narratives of Mexican Immigration to the United States.” Paper presented at the Social Science and History Association Meetings, November 16, 2007, Chicago, Illinois.
“The Spectacle and Citizenship: The Immigrant Marches of 2006.” Paper presented at the Annual Meetings of the American Anthropological Association Meetings, December 1, 2007, Washington, D.C.
“Protesting the Latino Threat Narrative and Claiming Citizenship.” Paper presented at the Annual Meetings of the Society for Applied Anthropology, March 25-29, 2008, Memphis, Tennessee.