Dr. Aleshia Barajas is a Visiting Assistant Professor in the American Studies Department; she is currently working on a book manuscript introducing an other-than-linear conceptual framework that challenges our current binary—here or there—understanding of the US-Mexico border and quotidian border-crossings. This work is based on three years of ethnographic field research at four ports of entry in Baja California/California and Sonora/Arizona, as well as Barajas’ own personal experience crossing the border every day to attend school in the US. Her research has been supported by the Ford Foundation. Dr. Barajas received a PhD in American Studies from Yale University.

Dr. Juan Ignacio Mora is a Visiting Assistant Professor in the History Department; he is currently working on a book manuscript titled Latino Encounters: Mexicans, Mexican-Americans, and Puerto Ricans in Michigan, 1929-1971. Drawing on multi-lingual research in U.S., Mexican, and Puerto Rican archives, Mora’s book examines three groups of Latina/o/xs as they forged national and transnational networks through postwar migration and agricultural labor. Dr. Mora received a PhD in History, with a minor in Latina/o Studies from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

Welcome Dr. Barajas and Dr. Mora!