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Isabel Martinez, Ph.D.

The Ellen Riojas Clark, PhD Endowed Chair in Bicultural-Bilingual Studies, Associate Professor, Bicultural-Bilingual Studies

Isabel Martinez, Ph.D.

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Bio

Dr. Isabel Martinez is The Ellen Riojas Clark PhD Endowed Chair and Associate Professor in the Department of Bicultural and Bilingual Studies in the College of Education and Human Development and in the Interdisciplinary School for Engagement in the College of Liberal and Fine Arts at The University of Texas at San Antonio. Her primary line of inquiry focuses on unaccompanied immigrant youths primarily from Mexico and Central America and the ways that they experience and understand their transitions to adulthood in New York City and more recently, Massachusetts. This research resulted in the recent completion of a digital testimonio project with Guatemalan K’iche youths and the groundbreaking monograph, Becoming Transnational Youth Workers: Independent Mexican Teenage Workers and Pathways of Survival and Social Mobility (Rutgers U Press 2019), as well as numerous reports and programming including her decade-long internship program U-LAMP (Unaccompanied Latin American Minor Project). She is also the co-editor of two books, Crossing Digital Fronteras: Rehumanizing Latinx Education and Digital Humanities (SUNY U Press, 2024) and Navegar por terrenos disputados: Casos Etnográficos por la vida migrante (Prensa de la BUAP, 2023). She is currently working on a monograph that documents a history of Latinx comedy, stand-up and sketch, in New York City. She also is the recipient of numerous grants and awards, including a 2024-2025 MassHumanities Expand Massachusetts Stories grant.

 

Teaching

  • Language, Culture, and Society
  • Latinx Youthhoods
  • Sociology of Education
  • Sociology of Immigration

Research Interests

  • International Youth Migration
  • Latinx Youthhoods
  • Teaching and Learning in Hispanic Serving Institutions
  • Latinx Performance Studies

Degrees

  • Ph.D. Sociology and Education, Teachers College, Columbia University, 2011
  • M.A. Educational Foundations, Policy and Practice, University of Colorado at Boulder, 2002
  • B.A. Sociology, Rice University, 1996

Honors and Awards

  • Faculty Leadership in Belonging Award
    • Year Awarded: 2025
    • Organization: College of Social Sciences and Humanities, Northeastern University
  • Research Leadership Development Initiative (ReDI)
    • Year Awarded: 2025
    • Organization: Northeastern University; Massachusetts Humanities Grant
  • “Erasure” Faculty Fellowship
    • Year Awarded: 2024-2025
    • Organization: Humanities Center, Northeastern University
  • Latinos for Education Board Fellow
    • Year Awarded: 2023-2024
  • The Kwando Kinshasa Excellence in Mentoring Award
    • Year Awarded: 2020
    • Organization: Ronald E. McNair Post-Baccalaureate Achievement Program, John Jay College of Criminal Justice

Publications

  • Martínez, I., Montelongo, I.V., Natividad, N.D., & Nieves, Á. D. (Eds). (2024). Crossing Digital Fronteras: Rehumanizing Latinx Education and Digital Humanities, Albany: SUNY Press. https://sunypress.edu/Books/C/Crossing-Digital-Fronteras
  • Marroni, M.G. y Martínez, I. (Coords). (2023). Navegar por terrenos disputados: Casos Etnográficos por la vida migrante, Puebla, Puebla, MX: Instituto de Ciencias Sociales y Humanidades, Benemérita Universidad Autónoma de Puebla (https://isbnmexico.indautor.cerlalc.org/catalogo.php?mode=detalle&nt=397211) 
  • Martínez, I. (2019). Becoming Transnational Youth Workers: Independent Mexican Teenage Migrants Survival and Social Mobility. New Brunswick: Rutgers University Press. (https://www.rutgersuniversitypress.org/becoming-transnational-youth-workers/9780813589794)