Leo R. Chavez

Leo R. Chavez is a Distinguished Professor in the Department of Anthropology at University of California Irvine. His research has focused on various aspects of the migration experience: families, work, immigration status, access to health care, cancer and Latinas, media representations of immigrants, and the psychological effects of political rhetoric. 

In addition to scores of academic articles, he is the author of Shadowed Lives: Undocumented Immigrants in American Society; Covering Immigration: Popular Images and the Politics of the Nation; The Latino Threat: Constructing Immigrants, Citizens, and the Nation; and Anchor Babies and the Challenge of Birthright Citizenship. His current research examines the effects of political rhetoric, especially anti-Latino and anti-immigrant rhetoric, on emotions and psychological well-being.

Dr. Chavez was elected a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science in 2018. The Association of Latina and Latino Anthropologists (ALLA) gave him the Distinguished Career Award for 2019. The Society for Applied Anthropology gave him the Bronislaw Malinowski Award, 2021, for distinguished lifetime contributions. He is currently President of the Association of Latina/o and Latinx Anthropologists, an interest group of the American Anthropological Association.

Dr. Chavez received his Ph.D. in Anthropology from Stanford University.