Faculty

RIDGS Cluster Hire Faculty

Name Contact Expertise
Karen Mary Davalos
Chicano & Latino Studies
American Studies
Art History
  Chicana/o art and culture; Latina/o spirituality; museum studies; midwestern Latino ethnography; oral history and the archive; feminist theory and editorial praxis; community-based learning and decolonial methods; arts organizations and artist collectives
Gabriela Spears-Rico
Assistant Professor
American Indian Studies
Chicano & Latino Studies
American Studies
Gender, Women & Sexuality Studies
spearsrg@umn.edu Cultural anthropology, performance studies, gendered violence, heritage tourism, mestizaje, decolonial feminism, ethnography, Chicanx indigeneity, Latinx spirituality

Department Chairs

Name Contact Expertise
Elizabeth Sumida Huaman 
American Studies
eshuaman@umn.edu Culturally-based community development, ecological knowledge and place-based education, Indigenous research design, human rights education
Vicente M. Diaz
American Indian Studies
vmdiaz@umn.edu Indigenous Critical Theory; Traditional Outrigger Canoe Voyaging in Micronesia; Coloniality and Indigenous Christianity in Micronesia; Indigenous Masculinity and Sports in the Pacific; Trans-Indigenous Theory and Practice
Amelia María de la Luz Montes
Chicano & Latino Studies
monte466@umn.edu Latina literature, LGBT literature, creative writing, and theories of identity.
Aren Aizura
Gender, Women & Sexuality Studies
azaizura@umn.edu queer theory and queer studies; transgender studies; South East Asian studies; labor and political economy; science and medicine; transnationality and globalization
Karen Ho
African American & African Studies
karenho@umn.edu Cultural studies of finance capital; finance, globalization, and capitalism; comparative race and ethnicity; feminist studies; political economy; ethnography; United States
Rich Lee
Asian American Studies
richlee@umn.edu Counseling psychology; ethnic minority mental health; individual differences; international adoption; prevention science; Asian American studies

Affiliated Faculty

Name Contact Expertise
Aisha Ghani
Assistant Professor
Anthropology
aghani@umn.edu Islam and the West; religion and politics, particularly Islam and politics; Post-Secularism and the Sacred; Radical and Secular Thought in the Middle East; Law and Society; Philosophy of Criminal Law; science and religion; psychoanalytic theory
Ann Waltner
Professor
History
waltn001@umn.edu ritual; law; religion; traditional Chinese social history; law; gender; analysis of historical documentation; rumor; gossip; chinese history; world history; feminism
Aren Aizura
Associate Professor 
Chicano & Latino Studies
azaizura@umn.edu queer theory and queer studies; transgender studies; South East Asian studies; labor and political economy; science and medicine; transnationality and globalization
Atilla Hallsby
Assistant Professor
Communication Studies
hall1039@umn.edu Algorithmic Culture, Conspiracy Theories, Deconstruction, Dogwhistles, Genealogy, Gendered and Disabled Passing, Privacy, Leaking/Whistleblowing, Psychoanalysis, Rhetorical History, Rhetorical Theory, Secrets/Secrecy, Transparency.
Bianet Castellanos
Associate Professor
American Studies
Chicano & Latino Studies
American Indian Studies
mbc@umn.edu indigenous communities and cultures; migration; anthropology of work; Chicana/o studies; Latin America; transnationalism; gender studies
Bic Ngo
Associate Professor
Curriculum & Instruction, College of Education & Human Development
bcngo@umn.edu Exploration of understandings and influences of “culture” and “difference” on immigrant students' education, and the implications for how we theorize immigrant identity, culturally relevant pedagogy, and anti-oppressive education.
Blanca Caldas Chumbes
Associate Professor
Curriculum & Instruction, College of Education & Human Development
bcaldasc@umn.edu Bilingual education, preservice bilingual/language teacher education, minoritized language practices and pedagogies, critical pedagogy, Spanish for bilingual teachers, oral narratives/testimonio, critical discourse analysis, participatory action research, critical (performance) ethnography.
Brenda J Child
Professor
American Studies
American Indian Studies
child011@umn.edu American Indian history; Public History and Museums; Ojibwe People of the Great Lakes; American Indian Women and Labor; The History of American Indian Education
Brendan Fairbanks
Associate Professor
American Indian Studies
fair0061@umn.edu linguistics; language revitalization; documentation; immersion
Cat Saint-Croix
Assistant Professor, Philosophy
csaintx@umn.edu Feminist & queer social philosophy, social ontology, epistemic injustice, doxastic wronging, standpoint theory, feminist formal logic 
Cawo Abdi
Associate Professor
Sociology
cabdi@umn.edu Migration; Gender, Race, and Class; Family; Islam; Education, Development Studies; Human Rights; Globalization; Africa; Middle East
Christina Ewig
Professor
Public Affairs
Director of Center on Women, Gender and Public Policy
cewig@umn.edu Gender and public policy; race, ethnicity and gender in legislative and presidential politics; social welfare policy; politics in Latin America; international development and democracy
Christine DeLisle
Associate Professor
American Indian Studies
cdelisle@umn.edu   Native and Indigenous Studies; Pacific Studies; Indigenous Women's History; Colonialism, Militarism, and the Environment; Indigenous Feminisms; Oceanic Resurgence and Social Movements; Micronesian Women's Activism; Museum Studies
Christopher Pexa
Assistant Professor
American Indian Studies
cpexa@umn.edu Native American and Indigenous Literatures, Native American and Indigenous Studies, Global Anglophone Indigenous Literatures, Futurity, Sovereignty Studies, Settler Colonial Studies, Dakota Language and Literature, Nineteenth- and Twentieth-Century American Literature, US Federal Indian Law, Critical Indigenous Theory
Cindy Garcia
Associate Professor
Theatre Arts & Dance
cgarcia@umn.edu Anti-racist arts and activism, the cultural politics of migration, race and performance in the Americas, and decolonial feminist ethnography
David Chang
Professor
History
American Indian Studies
dchang@umn.edu Indigenous Studies, Indigenous History, Native Hawaiian History, US West, Race and Nationalism, US Nineteenth- and Twentieth-Century History, US Colonialism
David Karjanen 
Associate Professor
American Studies
karjanen@umn.edu  Comparative political economy, with a particular emphasis on low wage work, informal work, and urbanization. This includes day labor, "less documented" migration, and low-wage service work
David Valentine
Associate Professor
Anthropology
valen076@umn.edu Cultural and linguistic anthropology, social justice movements, gender and sexuality, queer theory, the idea of the future commercial space exploration
Doug Hartmann
Professor
Sociology
hartm021@umn.edu Race, Ethnicity and Immigration, Sociology of Culture, Sport Studies, Social Movements, American Society, Field Methods, Contemporary Theory, Public Engagement
Douglas Kearney
Associate Professor
English
dkearney@umn.edu
Black Aesthetics/Poetics/Literature, Poetics/Prosody, Experimental Writing, Writing for Performance, Popular/Cultural Criticism, Hip Hop Studies

 

Dwight K. Lewis, Jr.
Assistant Professor
Philosophy
lewi1715@umn.edu History of early modern philosophy, Philosophy of race, Africana philosophy, with a focus on the philosophy of Anton Willhelm Amo (c.1700-c.1750)
Eden Torres
Associate Professor
Gender, Women & Sexuality Studies
torre007@umn.edu Race, class & gender, Chicana/o cultural studies, Chicana/Chicano history and politics, Chicana feminist theory, feminist & critical pedagogies, gender, labor & politics
Elaine Tyler May
Regents Professor
American Studies
History
mayxx002@umn.edu 20th century United States history; the Cold War era; gender, sexuality, politics
Elizabeth Sumida Huaman 
Associate Professor
Department of Organizational Leadership, Policy & Development, College of Education and Human Development
eshuaman@umn.edu Culturally-based community development, ecological knowledge and place-based education, Indigenous research design, human rights education
Elliott Powell
Associate Professor
American Studies
ehpowell@umn.edu American popular music and culture, critical race theory and comparative ethnic studies, feminist and queer studies, African American and Asian American studies, music and politics, music and globalization, jazz, hip hop, sound studies
Enid Logan
Associate Professor
Sociology
elogan@umn.edu Blackness & Indigeneity, Blackness in the Americas, contemporary U.S race relations, race and the body, race and electoral politics, Blacks and social class, Afro-Latin America
Erika Lee
Regents Professor
History
American Studies
Asian American Program
Immigration History Research Center
erikalee@umn.edu Migration, race, and ethnicity; Asian Americans; 20th-century United States; law and public policy
Erin Durban
Assistant Professor
Anthropology
Gender, Women & Sexuality Studies
American Studies
edurbana@umn.edu Feminist studies, transnational feminisms, queer and trans studies, disability studies, transnational American studies, Haiti and Haitian Studies
Gabriela Spears-Rico
Assistant Professor
American Indian Studies
Chicano & Latino Studies
American Studies
Gender, Women & Sexuality Studies
spearsrg@umn.edu Cultural anthropology, performance studies, gendered violence, heritage tourism, mestizaje, decolonial feminism, ethnography, Chicanx indigeniety, Latinx spirituality
Gabrielle Ferrales
Assistant Professor
Sociology
ferrales@umn.edu Law and society, gender, criminology and criminal justice, international criminal law, quantitative and qualitative methods, factorial survey methods for empirical analysis
Greg Donofrio
Associate Professor
School of Architecture, College of Design
donofrio@umn.edu History and Theory of Historic Preservation, Historic Preservation Policy, United States, 20th Century US Urban Planning History, Financial Incentives for Historic Preservation, Community Engaged Historic Preservation
Jean O'Brien
Professor
History
obrie002@umn.edu Native American and Indigenous studies, settler colonialism, state and federal recognition, US colonial history
American Studies
pierc012@umn.edu Workplace and labor studies, gender, feminist theory, race relations, affirmative action, ethnography, social theory, sociology of emotions, research using personal narratives
Jennifer Row
Assistant Professor
French & Italian
jjrow@umn.edu Queer theory, disability studies, Early Modern dramatic literature (French and English), dance history and performance studies, affect theory, histories and archives of sexuality and gender, literary theory and history of rhetoric
Jessica Lopez-Lyman
Assistant Professor
Chicano & Latino Studies
lyma0025@umn.edu Chicana/o/x and Latina/o/x performance, art, and organizing in the Midwest
Jimmy Patiño
Chicano & Latino Studies
jpatinoj@umn.edu Race/Class/Gender, Chicano/a and Latino/a History, Culture and Politics, Immigration and the US-Mexico Border, Latino/a Civil Rights and the Chicano/a Movement, African American and Latino/a Relations
Joe Soss
Professor
Social Policy Area, Humphrey School of Public Affairs
jbsoss@umn.edu Race and ethnicity; social welfare policy; gender; civic engagement and public participation; democracy; income inequality and poverty
John Wright
Emeritus Professor
African American & African Studies
English
wrigh003@umn.edu American and Afro-American literature, intellectual history and popular culture, folklore and oral tradition, sociology of literature, feminist criticism, Harlem Renaissance, Black Arts Movement, Langston Hughes
Josef Woldense
Assistant Professor
African American & African Studies
Political Science
jwoldens@umn.edu Elite politics, authoritarian regimes, political institutions and social network analysis with a geographical focus on Africa
Josephine Lee
Professor
English
Asian American Studies
American Studies
jolee@umn.edu Dramatic literature, theater history, performance studies, Asian American studies
Kale Fajardo
Associate Professor
American Studies
kfajardo@umn.edu Gender and sexuality studies, queer theory, queer of color critique, masculinity studies, transgender studies, Philippine Studies, Filipinix Studies, Asian American Studies, American Studies, Global Studies, globalization studies, migration studies, conceptual ethnographic practice, (UC) Santa Cruz School of Ethnography, visual cultures, photography, environmental humanities, human-fish relations.
Karen Ho
Associate Professor
Anthropology
karenho@umn.edu Cultural studies of finance capital; finance, globalization, and capitalism; comparative race and ethnicity; feminist studies; political economy; ethnography; United States
Karen Mary Davalos
Professor
Chicano & Latino Studies
  Chicana/o art and culture; Latina/o spirituality; museum studies; midwestern Latino ethnography; oral history and the archive; feminist theory and editorial praxis; community-based learning and decolonial methods; arts organizations and artist collectives
Karen-Sue Taussig
Associate Professor
Anthropology
taussig@umn.edu Medical anthropology; social and cultural implications of genetic testing, new reproductive technologies, cloning, and stem cell research; genetics; eugenics; anthropology of science; biotechnology
Kari Smalkoski
Assistant Professor
Gender, Women, & Sexuality Studies
smal0009@umn.edu Masculinity, gender and identity, education and political economy, LGBTQ youth as well as youth sports and social capital.
Asian American youths' experiences in and out of schools
Katherine Gerbner
Associate Professor
History
kgerbner@umn.edu Atlantic World, Early American History, Religion, Comparative Early Modern History, History of Race, Global Christianity
Kat Hayes
Associate Professor
Anthropology
American Indian Studies
kathayes@umn.edu Historical archaeology; memory, forgetting, history, heritage; settler colonialism and Indigenous studies; XR (extended reality) in heritage interpretation; archaeological ethics and repatriation
Katie Johnston-Goodstar
Associate Professor
Social Work, College of Education & Human Development
john1906@umn.edu Social and political contexts of urban and Indigenous youth development; Youth Participatory Action Research (YPAR); youth and media; critical and indigenous pedagogies; history of youth work and social work in urban and Indigenous communities
Katy Kozhimannil
Associate Professor
Health Policy Management, School of Public Health
kbk@umn.edu Health care policy, maternal and child health, rural health, health care quality, policy evaluation, health equity 
Keith Mayes
Associate Professor
African American & African Studies
mayes@umn.edu African-American History, 19th and 20th century; Kwanzaa and Black holidays; Civil Rights and Black Power Movement; Black History and Educational Policy; African American Public History
Keletso E. Atkins
Emerita Associate Professor
African American & African Studies
atkin013@umn.edu Africa, African diaspora, African labor history, South African history
Kevin Murphy
Professor
History
American Studies
kpmurphy@umn.edu History of sexuality, public history, comparative history of women and gender, United States history, cultural and intellectual history, urban history
Lena Palacios
Assistant Professor
Communication Studies
lena@umn.edu Critical carceral studies and abolitionist feminisms; transformative justice and community accountability; racialized, gendered, and sexualized violence within carceral, settler states; Black, Indigenous, Chicana & Latina queer and trans feminisms; firls’ and girlhood studies; research justice and critical participatory action research; media justice and social movement media; critical disability studies; health justice and structural determinants of health
Mai Na Lee
Associate Professor
History
mainalee@umn.edu Southeast Asia; Highland Southeast Asian Studies; Southeast Asian American/Hmong communities
Margaret Werry
Associate Professor
Theatre Arts & Dance
werry001@umn.edu Anthropological approaches to performance as social dramaturgy; critical race theory; cultural politics and performance of ethnicity, nationalism, and transnationalism, particularly in the Asia-Pacific region; 19th century Euro-American and British colonial popular theatre and entertainment culture; performance theory and historiographic method; cultural policy and governmentality - tourism, heritage, film; critical pedagogy; museum studies
Martin F. Manalansan IV
Associate Professor
American Studies
manal016@umn.edu Sexuality and gender; race and ethnicity; immigration and globalization; cities and modernity; affect; senses and embodiment; food and culture; science and technology studies; critical theory; Filipino global diaspora; Asian Americans; Southeast Asia; Philippines
Mary Hermes 
Associate Professor
Curriculum & Instruction, College of Education & Human Development
mhermes@umn.edu Community engagement; cultural studies; curriculum development;  diversity and equity; Indigenous language revitalization; social justice
Melanie Abeygunawardana
Assistant Professor
American Studies
abey@umn.edu Asian American studies; African American studies; 20th and 21st century American literature and culture; Comparative and relational approaches to race; Critical race theory; Theories of affect, feeling, and emotion; Queer theory
Michael Goldman
Associate Professor
Sociology
mgoldman@umn.edu Transnational, Political Economic and Urban Sociology; Expert Networks of Finance, Development, Knowledge, and Power
Miranda Joseph
Professor
Gender, Women & Sexuality Studies
josephm@umn.edu Feminist, Marxist, poststructuralist, and queer theory; cultural studies methods; LGBT studies
Nathaniel Mills
Associate Professor
English
mills175@umn.edu 20th-century US and African American Literature; African American Studies; Ralph Ellison, Richard Wright; Literature and Culture of the Great Depression; The Literary Left and Communism in the US
Nina Asher
Professor
Curriculum & Instruction, College of Education & Human Development
nasher@umn.edu Postcolonial and feminist theory; globalization; critical perspectives on multiculturalism; and Asian American studies in relation to education
Njeri Githire
Associate Professor
African American & African Studies
ngithire@umn.edu African Literarature; African Cinema; African Popular Cultures; African Diaspora Studies; Postcolonial Theory & Criticism; Gender Studies & Feminist Theory; Francophone Studies; Immigration, Migration & Transnational Networks in Africa/the Diaspora; Food, (Non)-Eating, and Related Topics in African Literature
Penny Edgell
Professor
Sociology
edgell@umn.edu Culture; Sociology of Religion & Nonreligion, Focus on the United States; Symbolic Boundaries & Inequality; Gender & Family
Rachel Hardeman
Assistant Professor
Health Policy Management, School of Public Health
hard0222@umn.edu Maternal and child health; sexual and reproductive health; health equity; structural racism; population health; medical education
Rachel Schurman
Professor
Sociology
schurman@umn.edu Agri-food Studies; Transnational Sociolgy; Social Movements; Global Political Economy; Political Sociology; Development/Post-Development Studies
Rachmi Diyah Larasati
Associate Professor
Gender, Women & Sexuality Studies
laras001@umn.edu Study of Archive, Memory of Violence; Creative Projects in Post-Conflict/War Zones (Asia); Performing Arts in Global Politics & Culture; Dancing Body, Tourism & Female Citizenship; Genocide/Massacre Cultural Reconstruction; Politics of Human Rights and Creative Arts; Dancing Body in Southeast Asian Islam; Aesthetics of Traditional/Indigenous Space and Embodiment
Rich Lee
Professor
Psychology
richlee@umn.edu Counseling psychology; prevention science; ethnic minority mental health; international adoption; individual differences; Asian American studies
Richa Nagar
Professor
Gender, Women & Sexuality Studies
nagar@umn.edu Politics of development; feminisms, praxis, and people's movements; Intersectionality, translations, and people's theater; blending/ interrupting genres and languages in antidisciplinary research
Robert Nichols
Associate Professor
Political Science
rbnichol@umn.edu Modern and Contemporary Political Theory; Critical Theory; Empire, Imperialism, and Colonialism in the History of Political Thought; Indigeneity and Settler Colonialism
Roozbeh Shirazi
Associate Professor
Comparative and International Development Education Program
Department of Organizational Leadership, Policy and Development
shir0035@umn.edu Comparative education; migration and racialization; Middle Eastern studies; postcolonial and decolonial studies in education; critical educational policy studies; diaspora studies and transnationalism; globalization; youth political subjectivities; politics of belonging; ethnography; participatory visual methodologies
Rose Brewer
Professor
African-American & African Studies
brewe001@umn.edu African American women's studies; Black family life; class; gender; intersection of economy; race; racism; sociology; women's studies; critical theory; social transformation
Ryan Allen
Assistant Professor 
Urban & Regional Planning, Humphrey School of Public Affairs
allen650@umn.edu Race and ethnicity; urban and regional planning; civic engagement and public participation; demography; housing policy and planning; immigration and refugee services and policy
Sima Shakhsari
Associate Professor
Gender, Women & Sexuality Studies
  Transnational Feminist Theory and Practice; Transnational Queer Theory and Sexuality Studies; Middle Eastern Studies; Social Media; Diasporas; Refugee Studies; Political Anthropology; Cultural and Social Anthropology; Studies of Governmentality; Neoliberalism; Civil Society
Stefanie Marshall
Assistant Professor
Curriculum & Instruction, College of Education & Human Development
slmarsh@umn.edu Science Education; Educational Policy; Leadership in science education
Susan Craddock
Professor
Gender, Women & Sexuality Studies
craddock@umn.edu AIDS; disease; health; social justice
Susanna Blumenthal
Professor
Law School
blume047@umn.edu Historical relationship between law and the human sciences
Tade Okediji
African American & African Studies; Applied Economics
tokediji@umn.edu Social and behavioral sciences; public policy and development; Africa and African diasporic studies
Tania Mitchell
Associate Professor
Organizational Leadership, Policy & Development, College of Education & Human Development
tmitchel@umn.edu Community engagement and service-learning; Civic identity; Social justice; Critical pedagogy; Ethical leadership Diversity and difference in higher education college student development
Teresa Swartz
Asian American Studies
Sociology
tswartz@umn.edu Families; Intergenerational Relations; Social Inequality; Asian American Studies; Gender; Welfare State; Youth and Young Adulthood
Timothy Lensmire
Professor
Curriculum & Instruction, College of Education & Human Development
lensmire@umn.edu Possibilities and problems of various critical pedagogies for how they can promote and embody radical democracy; how white people learn to be white in our white supremacist society
Tracey Deutsch 
Associate Professor
History
tdeutsch@umn.edu Consumption and consumerism; women's and gender history; history of capitalism; food studies
Vicente M. Diaz
Associate Professor
American Indian Studies
vmdiaz@umn.edu Indigenous Critical Theory; Traditional Outrigger Canoe Voyaging in Micronesia; Coloniality and Indigenous Christianity in Micronesia; Indigenous Masculinity and Sports in the Pacific; Trans-Indigenous Theory and Practice
Vichet Chhuon
Associate Professor
Curriculum & Instruction, College of Education & Human Development
vichet@umn.edu Motivation; Urban Education; Racial and Ethnic Identities; Adolescent Development; School Connectedness; Immigrant Youth; Asian American Studies
Victoria Coifman
Assistant Professor
African American & African Studies
coifm001@umn.edu African history; comparative tropical history; development issues; oral history; past and present urban and rural affairs; West and North African history; Islam
William P. Jones
Professor
History
wpjones@umn.edu African Americans; 20th-century United States; Unions/Organized Labor; Civil Rights Movement
Associate Professor
African American & African Studies
ohni001@umn.edu African American history, Asian American studies, African diaspora studies
Zenzele Isoke
Associate Professor
Gender, Women & Sexuality Studies
isoke001@umn.edu Black Femme/Queer of Color Feminism; Black Feminist Thought; Urban Ethnography; Feminist Theory and Methods; Black/African Diaspora Studies; Black Cultural Theory; Black Geographies