Rebecca Galemba (Meyers)
Josef Korbel School of International Studies at the University of Denver
2201 S. Gaylord St. Denver, CO 80210
Phone: (603) 667-5961; E-Mail: [email protected]
ACADEMIC APPOINTMENTS
2012-2015
2015-2016
in Sept 2016
The University of Denver
Lecturer, Josef Korbel School of International Studies
Visiting Assistant Professor, Josef Korbel School of International Studies
Assistant Professor, Josef Korbel School of International Studies
2009-2012
Harvard University
Lecturer Committee on Degrees in Social Studies
Fall 2008,
Winter 2010
Dartmouth College
Visiting Instructor, Department of Latin American, Latino, and Caribbean Studies
EDUCATION
Brown University
2009
Ph.D., Anthropology
Dissertation: Cultures of Contraband: Contesting (Il)legality at the Mexico-Guatemala Border
Committee: Kay B. Warren (Chair), Matthew C. Gutmann, Catherine Lutz, and Carolyn Nordstrom
(external reader)
2005
A.M., Anthropology
A.M. Thesis: The Gendered and Ethnic Politics of Security in Tijuana, Mexico
Pre-Doctoral Trainee with the Population Studies and Training Center
El Centro de Investigaciones y Estudios Superiores en Antropología Social (CIESAS-Sureste)
2006-2007
Guest student supervised by Jose Luis Escalona Victoria
Dartmouth College
2003
A.B. with honors, magna cum laude, Latin American Studies, Spanish minor
Thesis: A Community on the Move: Marginalization and Migration in Santa Ana del Valle, Oaxaca,
Mexico
Universidad del Belgrano, Buenos Aires, Argentina
Spring 2001
Advanced Spanish Language Study Abroad
RESEARCH AND TEACHING INTERESTS
Latin America; legal anthropology; critical security studies; economic anthropology; immigration;
anthropological demography; border studies; globalization; informal and illicit economies; violence
PEER-REVIEWED JOURNAL ARTICLES & BOOK CHAPTERS
2014
Mexico’s Border (In)security. The Postcolonialist. 2(2).
2014
Development Across Learning Boundaries: Student Collaborations with a Grassroots NGO in Mexico
and Guatemala. The Applied Anthropologist 33(2): 21-29. (First author with Roisin Duffy Gideon, Saran
Stewart, Catherine Orsborn, Anita Smart, and Juan Bernarda Hernández-Gómez).
2013
Thomas, Kedron, and Rebecca Galemba, eds. Co-guest editors of Symposium Issue: Illegal
Anthropology. Political and Legal Anthropology Review (PoLAR) 36(2).
Page 2
2013
Illegality and Invisibility at Margins and Borders. Political and Legal Anthropology Review (PoLAR)
36(2): 274-285
2012
“Corn is Food, Not Contraband: The Right to Free Trade at the Mexico-Guatemala Border.
American Ethnologist 39(4): 716-734.
2012
Remapping the Border: Taxation, Territory, and State Power at the Mexico-Guatemala Border.
Journal of Environment and Planning D: Society and Space 30(5): 822-841.
2012
Taking Contraband Seriously: Practicing “Legitimate Work” at the Mexico-Guatemala Border.
The Anthropology of Work Review 33(1): 3-14.
2011
“Un poco legal, un poco ilegal.” La vida cotidiana en un paso clandestino de la frontera at the
México-Guatemala Border. En Alejandro Agudo Sanchíz y Marco Estrada Saavedra, eds.
(Trans)formaciones del Estado en los Márgenes de Latinoamérica. Imaginarios Alternativos, Aparatos
Inacabados y Espacios Transnacionales. México: UIA / COLMEX, pp. 339-367.
2008
Illicit and Informal Entrepreneurs: Fighting for a Place in the Neoliberal Economic Order. The
Anthropology of Work Review 29(2): 19-25.
BOOK REVIEWS
2013
Review of: The Mayan in the Mall: Globalization, Development, and the Making of Modern
Guatemala. by J.T. Way. The Latin Americanist 57(4): 150-152.
2007
Review of: From Movements to Parties in Latin America: The Evolution of Ethnic Politics. By Donna
Lee Van Cott. Journal of Latin American Politics and Society 49(2): 205-9. (Published under Meyers,
Rebecca).
BLOG POSTS
Sept. 2015
De-Normalizing Wage Theft in Denver, CO: A Qualitative Research and Legal Outreach Study. The
Korbel Human Trafficking Center Blog Series. http://humantraffickingcenter.org/guest-posts/denormalizing-wage-theft-in-denver-co-a-qualitative-research-and-legal-outreach-study/
2013
Experiments in Service-Learning: Learning for Students, Academics, and Natik
http://natik.org/experiments-in-service-learning-learning-for-students-academics-and-natik/ July 17
BOOKS
n.d.
Contraband Corridor: Legality, Morality, and Survival at the Mexico-Guatemala Border. Under
advance contract with Stanford University Press. Full manuscript under review.
FELLOWSHIPS, GRANTS, AND AWARDS
January 2016
Office of Internationalization Faculty Grant, The University of Denver to fund
participation in workshop on Human Smuggler Narratives in Florence, Italy
January 2016
Alice and Michael Kuhn Foundation Grant to fund survey and community
$15,000
outreach for Strategies to Combat Wage Theft for Day Laborers in Denver, CO, with El Centro
Humanitario
December 2015 Korbel Social Science Foundation Grant to fund survey for Wage Theft Experienced
By Day Laborers in Denver, CO
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$2660
$5,000
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April 2015
Interdisciplinary Research Incubator for the Study of (In)Equality (IRISE)
$5,000
Faculty Research Grant, The University of Denver, with Raja Raghunath to support research: Wage
Theft in the Construction Industry in Denver, CO
March 2015
Korbel Latin America Center Grant
$1,500
Faculty Research Grant, The University of Denver to support class project on research: Wage Theft in
the Construction Industry in Denver, CO
February 2015 Labor Research and Action Network
$3,000
New Scholars Research Grant, with Raja Raghunath to support research: Wage Theft in the Construction
Industry in Denver, CO
January 2015
Public Good Fund Grant, Center for Community Engagement & Service Learning
$15,000
Faculty Research Grant, The University of Denver, with Raja Raghunath to support research: Wage
Theft in the Construction Industry in Denver, CO
Summer 2014 Grant for Curriculum and International Development: Office of Internationalization
$2,030
Faculty Grant, The University of Denver to support preliminary research in Chiapas, Mexico to create an
international service-learning course
Spring 2014
Mini-Grant for Service Learning, Center for Community Engagement & Service Learning
Faculty Grant, The University of Denver to support class project collaborating with the Denver
immigrant and refugee communities
$950
2012
American Anthropological Association Leadership Program Fellow
Selected for potential to exhibit leadership within the American Anthropological Association
$500
2010
Best Dissertation Prize, New England Council of Latin American Studies
2008
Watson Smith Prize for Best Anthropology Paper, Brown Anthropology Department
2008-2009
Craig M. Cogut Dissertation Writing Fellowship, Center for Latin American Studies
Brown University. Fellowship to support one graduate student per year writing on topics pertaining to
Latin America
2006-2007
Wenner-Gren Foundation Grant for Dissertation Fieldwork
$25,000
Internationally-competitive fellowship to conduct original dissertation fieldwork in Chiapas, Mexico and
Huehuetenango, Guatemala
Summer 2005 Population Studies and Training Center Award for Pre-Dissertation Research
Summer 2004
MA Research Funding provided by the Brown Anthropology Department and Graduate School
Winter 2004
Tinker Foundation Grant for Preliminary MA Fieldwork. Center for Latin American Studies, Brown
University
2004-2006
National Institute of Child Health and Human Development Fellowship
Selective fellowship administered by the Population Studies and Training Center, Brown University to
support graduate study
2003
Brown University Graduate Fellowship
RESEARCH PROJECTS
2015-present
Fieldwork in Denver and Aurora, CO from January 2015-present
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Project Title: The New Normal Wage Theft in the Denver Construction Industry
• CO-PI with Raja Raghunath, Sturm College of Law at the University of Denver
• Interdisciplinary ethnographic research and legal outreach to explore labor exploitation experienced
by Latino day laborers in Denver and Aurora, CO
• Conduct interviews and participation with Latino day laborers, allied churches and non-profits,
lawyers and legal agencies, and employers and unions
• Supervise graduate students research assistants and graduate student groups collaborating on the
project
• Engage in dialogue with activists, legal agencies, and non-profits to assess and effectively implement
legislation
• Project featured on Telemundo (February 28, 2015) and Rocky Mountain PBS (March 4, 2015)
2006-2007
Fieldwork in Chiapas, Mexico and Huehuetenango, Guatemala from September 2006-September 2007
Project Title: Contraband Corridor, Legality, Morality, & Survival at the Mexico-Guatemala Border
• Ethnographic research including interviews and participant observation on border security, regional
trade integration, and clandestine informal trade in Chiapas, Mexico and Huehuetenango, Guatemala
Lived and conducted fieldwork with residents in a clandestine border route
• Conducted interviews with merchants, politicians agricultural producers, customs and immigration
officials, police, and academics on both sides of the border
• Taught volunteer community English classes
• Conducted follow-up fieldwork in summers of 2008, 2011, and 2014
2004
Fieldwork in Tijuana Mexico in summer of 2004
Project Title: The Gendered and Ethnic Politics of Security in Tijuana Mexico
• Conducted interviews and participant observation on perceptions of security and insecurity while
living in a colonia in Tijuana, Mexico
• Investigated relations between indigenous and non-indigenous Mexican migrants to the city as well
as how residents perceive border security, policing, and crime and insecurity in a marginal colonia
• Conducted interviews and participant observation on experiences of migration in migrant hostels and
church groups in downtown Tijuana, Mexico
• Taught volunteer English classes
2002
Fieldwork and Community Service in Oaxaca, Mexico in summer of 2002
Project Title: A Community on the Move: Marginalization and Migration in Santa Ana del Valle,
Oaxaca, Mexico
• Conducted ethnographic fieldwork including interviews and participation observation on the impacts
of migration on the gendered division of labor and marginalization in the migrant sending
community of Santa Ana del Valle, Oaxaca, Mexico
• Volunteered through the Amigos de las Americas Program
TEACHING AND ADVISING EXPERIENCE
Josef Korbel School of International Studies, The University of Denver
2012-present
Lecturer
Graduate Courses:
Cultures of Globalization: Networks, Commodities, and Affections; International Development in CrossCultural Perspective; Qualitative Research Methodologies: (course supervises student research and
service learning-projects with immigrant and refugee communities in Denver and Aurora, CO
Undergraduate Courses:
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Human Dimensions of Globalization; Illicit Markets
Enrichment Course:
Beyond the #Hashtag: Women, Gender, and International Human Rights. Taught session on Gender,
Trafficking, and Conflict: Media and the Politics of Representation
Faculty Affiliations:
Korbel Latin America Center; Korbel Human Trafficking Center: Faculty Fellow.
Student Supervision:
Camden Bowman. MA Thesis 2015: A Fair Day’s Wages: Wage Theft and Denver’s Immigrant
Community
Research assistants on project: The New Normal: Wage Theft in the Denver Construction Industry
Kendra Allen (2015), Camden Bowman (2015), Max Spiro (2015-2016), Morgan Brokob (2015-2016),
Amy Czulada (2015-2016), Ana Gutierrez (2015-2016).
Jeanne Crump: Significant Research Paper 2016 on An Assessment of Livelihood Services in Refugee
Settlements
Max Spiro: Independent Study 2016: Surveying Marginalized Populations
Harvard University
2009-2012
Lecturer
Committee on Degrees in Social Studies Courses:
Violence and Culture, International Migration: Critical Perspectives for the 21st Century
Freshman Seminars Course:
The Great Immigration Debate
Anthropology Course:
The Politics of Illicit Networks in Latin America
Committee on Degrees in Social Studies Board of Advisors
Academic advisor for 6-10 students per year. Assisted with course selection, guided students to create an
interdisciplinary focus field within the concentration to focus their studies around a topic and a region,
advised on fellowships, internships, postgraduate opportunities, and connected students with academic,
social, and personal support resources
Committee on Degrees in Social Studies Senior Thesis Workshop Leader
Led bi-monthly peer review sessions, advised students on developing a coherent thesis and methodology,
and provided general advice on the thesis process
Committee on Degrees in Social Studies Honors Theses Supervised:
Liliana Delgado, Harvard 2010: A Place for Myself: The Role of Organizations in Lima’s Squatter
Settlements
David Tao, Harvard 2011: Social and Economic Incorporation of Sub-Saharan African Migrants and
Refugees in Contemporary Rome, Italy
Amy Smekar, Harvard 2012: Closet Communities: A Study of Queer Life in Cairo.
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Maya Sugarman, Harvard 2012: The Aftershock Across the Sea: Temporary Protected Status Among
Haitians Living in the United States after the 2010 Earthquake
Dartmouth College
Fall 2008,
Winter 2010
Visiting Instructor in Latin American, Caribbean, and Latino Studies and Anthropology
Courses:
Comparative Perspectives on the U.S.-Mexico Borderlands
Illicit Networks, Informal Entrepreneurs, and State Violence in Latin America
Service:
The Tucker Foundation: Faculty Fellow for Alternative Spring Break Service Trip. Samán, The
Dominican Republic
Advised students by helping to prepare weekly information sessions on migration, politics, development,
tourism, race, and Haiti-Dominican relations for three months to the trip
Accompanied participants on the service-learning trip in Spring 2009 and continued to advise through
Winter 2010
Brown University
2004-2006
Teaching Assistant, Grader
Teaching Assistant/Grader for Courses:
Violence and the Media (Professor Kay Warren); Introduction to Cultural Anthropology (Professor
Matthew Gutmann); War and Society (Professor Catherine Lutz)
CONFERENCE PAPERS, COLLOQUIA PRESENTATIONS, INVITED TALKS, & WORKSHOPS GIVEN
2016
Co-led community information session for parents at Denver Public Schools and for the Colorado
Providers for Integration Network on Wage Theft with Raja Raghunath, January 14 and February 10.
2016
“’Phantom Commerce’: Smuggling Economies, Regional Development, and (In)Security at the MexicoGuatemala Border.” Paper proposed to be presented at the American Political Science Association
Meetings, Philadelphia, PA, September.
2015
“’He used to be a pollero’: Smugglers and the Securitization of Migration at the Mexico-Guatemala
Border.” Paper accepted to be presented at invited workshop: Critical Approaches Irregular Migration
Facilitation: Dismantling the Human Smuggler Narrative, Florence, Italy, April 8-9 2016.
2016
“This is the Mexican Office”: Street Corner Work Strategies Among Latino Day Laborers in Colorado.
Paper accepted to be presented at the Latin American Studies Association Meeting, New York, NY, May
27-30
2015
The New Normal: Wage Theft in the Denver Construction Industry. Paper to be presented at
the American Anthropological Association Meeting, Denver, CO, November 18-22
• Chair of Proposed Session: Intimate Strangers: Undocumented Immigrations, the National
Imagination, and Exploitation
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2015
Led session on Interviewing Vulnerable Subjects at the Aurora Welcome Center to prepare staff to
interview new immigrants and refugees. Aurora, CO, July 7
2015
Invited guest presenter on Qualitative Research Methods in Research Design and Methods class at the
Josef Korbel School of International Studies. April 30
2015
Panelist on Internationalization for Graduate and Adult Students Panel. University of
Denver Internationalization Summit, University of Denver, April 10
2014, 2015
Led workshops on Qualitative Methods at the Korbel Human Trafficking Center. The University of
Denver, November 4, 2015 and February 10, 2015
2014
The Feminization of Contingency: Sex, Race, and Class in the Academy. Chair and co-organizer of
Executive Session Roundtable. Roundtable held at the Committee on Gender Equity in Anthropology’s
Invited Session at the American Anthropological Association Meeting, Washington, D.C. December 3-7
2014
Humanitarian Crisis in Immigration. Panelist. Korbel Latin America Center, Josef Korbel School of
International Studies, University of Denver. October 7
2014
Invited guest Skype speaker in U.S.-Mexico Borderlands class at Dartmouth College. January 27
2013
Invited guest Skype speaker to address Anthropology of Crime and Punishment class at Princeton
University on article, “Corn is Food, Not Contraband.” November 7. Repeated in November 2014
2013
E.P. Thompson’s “Reasonable Price”: Popular Mobilization and the Disruption of the Moral
Economy of Corn Provision in Chiapas, Mexico. Paper presented in abstentia at the American
Anthropological Association Meeting, Chicago, IL, November 2
• Co-organizer of Panel: Anthropology’s Engagement with the Work of E.P. Thompson
2013
Combusting Governance. Gasoline Smuggling at the Mexico-Guatemala Border. Paper presented at the
Latin American Studies Association Meeting, Washington, D.C., May 19-June 1
2013
Development Across Learning Boundaries: Student Collaborations with a Grassroots NGO in Mexico
and Guatemala. Paper presented at the Society for Applied Anthropology Meeting, Denver, CO, March.
• Chair of Panel: Development Insides and Outside the Classroom: Taking Students to the Field
and the Field to Students
2013
Phantom Commerce: Contraband, Community Development, and State Power at the Mexico- Guatemala
Border. Invited Lecture at Department of Anthropology, University of Denver, January 23
2012
“The Border is Our Inheritance”: Middlemen Smuggler, Truckers, and Configurations of Power and
Profit at the Mexico-Guatemala Border. Paper presented at the American Anthropological Association
Meeting, San Francisco, CA, November
• Chair of Panel: Brokering the Border: Gate-Keepers within the Governance of International
Migration
2011
Invited Speaker at event for film Screening, Papers. Harvard Act on a DREAM. Spring
2011
“Corn is Food, Not Contraband”: An Ethnography of (Il)legality. Invited Lecture at Department of
Anthropology, Vanderbilt University, February 11
2011
“Corn is Food, Not Contraband”: The Right to Free Trade at the Mexico-Guatemala Border.
Paper presented at the Social Anthropology Program Seminar Series, Harvard University, November 28
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2011
Coming of Age in a Contraband Economy: Youth’s Subjective Experiences with Illegality at the
Mexico-Guatemala Border. Paper presented at the American Anthropological Association Meeting,
Montreal, Canada, November
• Chair and Co-Organizer of Panel: Illegal Anthropology and Anthropologists
2011
Remapping the Border: Taxation, Territory, and State Power at the Mexico-Guatemala Border. Presented
at the Transnational Studies Initiative Workshop, Harvard University, September 27
2010
The Values of Contraband: Negotiating Honest Work in a Contraband Economy at the MexicoGuatemala Border. Paper presented at the American Anthropological Association Meeting, New
Orleans, LA, November
2009
“We Are Crossed”: Nationality and Citizenship at the Mexico-Guatemala Border. Paper presented at the
Migration and Immigration Incorporation Workshop, Harvard University, October 22
2009
Local Forms of State Formation: Territoriality, Taxation, and Belonging on the Mexico-Guatemala
Border Paper presented in abstentia at conference: Objects-What Matters? Technology, Value and Social
Change. ESRC Centre for Research on Socio-Cultural Change, University of Manchester, England,
September
2008
Living In-Between the Lines: Documentation and Illegibility at the Border. Paper presented at the
American Anthropological Association Meeting, San Francisco, CA, November
2008
"100% Chapin”: Documenting and Debating National and Ethnic Identity at the Mexico-Guatemala
Border. Paper presented at the New England Council of Latin American Studies Conference, Brown
University, October 4
• Chair and Organizer of Panel: Post Post-War Guatemala: Contemporary Transformations in 21st
Century Guatemala
• Also presented at the Working Group on Anthropology and Population Seminar Series, Brown
University, November 7
2008
“Corn is Food, not Contraband”: Discourses and Practices of Legality on the Mexico-Guatemala Border.
Paper presented at Department of Anthropology Colloquia, Dartmouth College, May 12
2008
Making their Own Customs: Contraband and Community Border Control on the Mexico-Guatemala
Border. Paper presented at the Population Association of America Meeting, New Orleans, LA, April.
2008
Living In-Between the Lines: The Politics and Ethics of (Il)Legality on the Mexico-Guatemala Border
Paper presented at the Ethics Institute, Dartmouth College, February 7
2007
“Corn is Food, Not Contraband”: Discourses and Practices of Legality on the Mexico-Guatemala Border.
Paper presented at the American Anthropological Association Meeting, Washington, D.C. December
• Co-Chair and Co-Organizer of Panel: Illicit and Informal Entrepreneurs: Fighting for a Place in
the Neoliberal Economic Order
2007
“Un Poco Legal, Un Poco Ilegal”: El juego en un extravío de la frontera. Paper presented at CIESASSureste and at UNAM-PROIMMSE, San Cristóbal de las Casas, Chiapas, Mexico, May 7 and July 2
2006
The Gendered and Ethnic Politics of Security in Tijuana, Mexico. Paper presented at the Latin American
Studies Association Meeting, San Juan, Puerto Rico, March 15-18
2005
At the Borders of Empire: Living on El Otro Lado. Paper presented at the American Anthropological
Association Meeting, Washington, D.C., November 30-December 4
• Co-Organizer of Panel: Movements of Empire: Becoming Global and Other Worlds
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2005
Combating Structures of Crime and Corruption: A Case for Agency in Tijuana. Paper presented at the
New England Council of Latin American Studies Conference, Bowdoin College, October
2005
Drawing the Border: Artistic Understandings of Security in Tijuana, Mexico. Paper presented at the
American Ethnological Society Meeting, San Diego, CA, April
2005
Creating Categories and Emotions: Migration and Security in Tijuana, Mexico. Paper presented at the
Population Association of America Meeting, Philadelphia, PA, March 31
LANGUAGE SKILLS
Spanish: non-native fluency
Portuguese: completed proficiency in 2003 at Dartmouth College
French: completed proficiency in 2002 at Dartmouth College
ACADEMIC SERVICE
2015-
Committee Representative, Committee on Gender Equity in Anthropology (CoGEA) representative to
the American Anthropological Association (AAA) Institutional Working Group (IWG) to evaluate AAA
committee structures and the AAA Strategic Implementation Plan
2015-
Chair, Committee on Gender Equity in Anthropology (CoGEA)
Elected chair by CoGEA committee. CoGEA is a section of the national American Anthropological
Association charged with monitoring gender equity in the discipline
2013-2015
Undesignated Seat, Committee on Gender Equity in Anthropology (CoGEA)
Elected in national association-wide election to serve on CoGEA from 2013-2016
2015
Participant, Committee for Imagine DU to explore DU-community engagement, The University of
Denver. April 13
2015
Participant, Committee to help devise standards for implementation of APT series at the Josef Korbel
School of International Studies, The University of Denver.
2011
Best Dissertation Selection Committee, New England Council of Latin American Studies
2010-2012
Policy Committee Member, David Rockefeller Center for Latin American Studies, Harvard University
Ongoing
Reviewer, for American Ethnologist; Journal of Urban Anthropology and Studies of Cultural Systems
and World Economic Development; The Postcolonialist, Political and Legal Anthropology Review
(PoLAR), and Geopolitics
2004-2005
Graduate Student Representative, Brown Anthropology Department
2004-2005
Anthropology Department Representative, to the Brown University Graduate Student Council
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2004-2005
Co-organizer, for Working Group in Anthropology and Population Colloquium, Brown University
COMMUNITY/GLOBAL SERVICE
2015-present
Planning Assistant/Collaborator, The Wage Theft Task Force
• Work with The Wage Theft Task Force to bring together a coalition of non-profits, lawyers, and
policy-makers to assess the implementation of the Wage Protection Act (SB 5) to address the
wage theft claims of low-wage workers
2012-present
Collaborator with El Centro Humanitario
• Work with the staff and director to connect their work on immigrant and labor rights to efforts at
the University of Denver
2009-present
Board of Directors, Natik (www.natik.org)
• Serve on board of directors to guide non-profit that works to empower marginalized
communities in Mexico and Guatemala. Programs include secondary school scholarships and
tutoring programs, local libraries, and fair trade collaboration with female indigenous artisans
• Help build academic engagement of non-profit and links to academic institutions, interns, and
volunteers
• Advise on mission, partnership development, and collaborating with on-the-ground partners
Summer 2002 Volunteer with Amigos de las Americas, Oaxaca, Mexico
Summer 1998 Volunteer with Global Routes, San Jacinto, Ecuador
PROFESSIONAL AND ADVOCACY AFFILIATIONS
American Anthropological Association
Population Association of America
Latin American Studies Association
Society for Applied Anthropology
American Ethnological Society
Society for Economic Anthropology
Guatemala Scholars Network
Natik
Rights for All People
El Centro Humanitario
Colorado Wage Theft Task Force
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