Professional Service

• Advisory Group. The Spirit of Día de los Muertos special exhibit, McClung Museum of Natural History and Culture.
• Faculty Sponsor, Student Advocates for Medicine in Politics
• Disaster, Displacement, and Human Rights
• Latin American and Caribbean Studies
• Global Studies

Awards and Recognitions

• 2022. Outstanding Student Organization Advisor, Center for Student Engagement
• 2013. Espíritu Latino Award, Centro Hispano de East Tennessee
• 2011. Peacemaker Award, Oak Ridge Environmental Peace Alliance
• 2009. November Faculty Spotlight, Office of Information Technology/Innovative Technology Consulting
• 2008. Leadership Award, Tennessee Immigrant and Refugee Rights Coalition
• 2007. Leadership Awards, Tennessee Immigrant and Refugee Rights Coalition

Publications

Articles

• 2023. Communal and Labor Sharing Systems. In The Routledge Handbook of Indigenous Development. Eds., Katherina Ruckstuhl, Irma Alicia Velásquez Nimatuj, John McNeish, and Nancy Postero. London and New York: Routledge.
• 2018. Immigrant Rights Struggles and Immigration Enforcement in Tennessee. In Porous Borders, Invisible Boundaries: Ethnographic Perspectives on the Vicissitudes of Contemporary Migration, edited by Jayne Howell, Deborah R. Altamirano, Faedah M. Totah, and Fethi Keles. (publication of the Committee on Refugees and Immigrants, Society for Urban, National, Transnational and Global Anthropology, American Anthropological Association, October 2018) pp.73-76.  Translation for Melesio Peter Espinoza. Nicaraguan Miskitus and Changes in U.S. Policies, pp.87-90.
• 2016. Urgent Need to Address Punitive Immigration Policies, part of a series, How Do We Talk About Migration: Voices from the United States and Mexico, edited by Judith Friedenberg and Jorge Durand, Practicing Anthropology 38:1 (Winter 2016): 51-53.
• 2011. Seeking to Understand the Politics of Immigration in Tennessee, Norteamérica 6 (special issue): 129-178.  Special issue on “Immigration to the Southeastern United States,” Elaine Levine and Alan LeBaron, guest editors, journal published by Centro de Investigaciones sobre América del Norte, Universidad Autónoma de México. Click here to download PDF
• 1998. Crossing Borders with Information and Resources for the Treatment of Diabetes.  In The Survival of Families in Poverty in the United States/Mexico Border Region, Manuel Ribeiro Ferreira and David M. Austin, eds. Monterrey, México: Schools of Social Work at University of Texas at Austin and Universidad Autónoma de Nuevo León, pp. 121-155.

Dissertation

• 2003. Control, Compliance, and Common Sense: Power Relation in Diabetes Care for Mexican Americans. 

Selected Conference Presentations

• 2022. Guatemalan Maya Migration: An Overview. Southeast Immigration Studies Association, Charleston, SC.
• 2020. COVID-19 Responses in Indigenous Communities in Central America, with Irma Alicia Velásquez Nimatuj and Melesio Peter Espinoza. American Anthropological Association, online.
• 2018. Immigrant Rights and Immigration Enforcement in Tennessee: Luchas por los derechos de inmigrantes en Tennessee, Latin American Studies Association, Barcelona, Spain.
• 2016. Immigrant Rights in Tennessee: Building on Legacies of Latin American and Civil Rights Movement Activism, Latin American Studies Association, New York, NY.
• 2014. Popular Organizing, Story-Telling, and an Awareness of Inequalities: Are They Leading to Changes in Local, State, and Federal Immigration Policies?  American Anthropological Association, Washington, D.C.
• 2012. State and Local Enforcement of Federal Immigration Laws in Tennessee: Analyzing the Effects of 287(g)and “Secure Communities.”  The 4th Conference on Immigration to the Southeast, hosted by Kennesaw State University.
• 2008. Engaging in Immigration Debates at the State and Local Levels: Conundrums for Immigrants and their Allies in Tennessee.  American Anthropological Association meetings, San Francisco.
• 2006. The Diabetes Epidemics: Genetics or the Environment? Using Race Theory and Critical Medical Anthropology to Weigh in on the Debate.  American Anthropological Association meetings, San Jose.
• 2005. The Politics of Compliance in Medical Encounters with Low-Income Minority Patients.  American Anthropological Association meetings, Washington, D.C.
• 2002. The Core Metaphor of Control: Questioning the Common Sense of Biomedical Discourse and its Effects on Diabetes Care.  Society for Applied Anthropology meeting, Atlanta.
• 1993. Researchers, Social Agencies, and Single Mothers.  With Erica David and Pamela Smith.  Society for Applied Anthropology meetings, San Antonio.
• 1991. The Misa Campesina: Revolutionary Change “a la nica.”  Latin American Studies Association International Congress, Washington, D.C.