Rate My Professor Isabel Montemayor

Dr. Isabel Montemayor is an Assistant Professor of Anthropology in the Department of Sociology and Anthropology at the University of Texas at Arlington, where she began her tenure in fall 2015 with a joint appointment in Anthropology and Sociology, and also served as Faculty Research Associate with the Center for Mexican American Studies. She earned her Ph.D. in Medical Anthropology from Michigan State University in 2014, an M.A. in Sociocultural Anthropology from Michigan State University, an M.A. in Latin American Studies from the University of Texas at Austin, and a B.S. in Spanish and Political Science from Central Michigan University. As a medical anthropologist, her academic interests center on the intersections of immigration and healthcare policies, particularly their impacts on transnational Latino immigrants, undocumented Mexicans, and mixed-status families. Her ethnographic research, spanning over 12 years, chronicles the lives of more than 30 families in Michoacán, Mexico, and Michigan, highlighting health maintenance strategies amid border separations and policy shifts. This work aligns with UTA's strategic focus on health and the human condition, especially among Hispanic populations.

Montemayor teaches courses such as Medical Anthropology, Latino Health Issues, Border Cultures and Cartels, Global Cultures, Food and Culture, and Introduction to Anthropology. Key publications include "Health Care Needs in Crisis: An Exploratory Study of Latinos in the Midwest" (2010), "They Treat You a Different Way: Public Insurance, Stigma, and the Challenge to Quality Health Care" (2017), and "Precarious Undocumented Lives: Strategies for Safety and Protection" (2018). She is developing a book project examining how health and immigration policies affect the holistic well-being of mixed-status families. Her recent presentation at the Society for Applied Anthropology annual meeting in March 2021 addressed obstetric violence in rural Michoacán. Prior to UTA, she worked as a Senior Research Associate at the Michigan Public Health Institute, conducting qualitative assessments of Michigan's Medicaid expansion. During graduate studies, she received the King-Chavez-Parks Future Faculty Fellowship. Her scholarship reframes societal views by underscoring immigrants' productivity and necessity.