About Me:
Carlos G. Vélez-Ibáñez received a Ph.D. in Anthropology, USCD (1975). Intellectual interests are broadly comparative and applied and publications include twelve books in English and Spanish with three more translated into Spanish as well many articles and chapters. He held professorships in anthropology at UCLA and the University of Arizona where in 1982 he was the founding director of the Bureau of Applied Research in Anthropology. He became dean in 1994 at the University of California, Riverside of the College of Humanities, Arts and Social Sciences and founded the Ernest Galarza Applied Research Center, and in 2011 founded the School of Transborder Studies at Arizona State University. Presently, he is Regents’ Professor of the School of Transborder Studies and School of Human Evolution and Social Change, and Founding Director Emeritus of STS, and Motorola Presidential Professor of Neighborhood Revitalization, at Arizona State University. He has had numerous research and applied projects funded by private foundations and governmental agencies including the newest in 2016 which is a five-year project designed to recruit, train, and retain Mexican origin migrant students to Arizona State University. His honors include the Bronislaw Malinowski Award, 1994 by the Society of Applied Anthropology; Fellow, Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences, Stanford University, 1993-94; and elected Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, 1999. On April 19, 2016, he was inducted as a Corresponding Member of the Mexican Academy of Sciences; the first foreign anthropologist selected and joined 107 other members including 10 Noble Prize winners. Most recently, he was elected as the NACCS Rocky Mountain Foco Scholar in 2016 and received the Saber es Poder Prize in 2018 from the Institute for Mexicans Abroad and the Mexican American Studies Department of the University of Arizona. His book, Hegemonies of Language and their Discontents (Tucson: University of Arizona, 2017) was awarded Honorable Mention by the American Association of Latinas/os Anthropologists of the American Anthropology Association in November of 2018. In 2020, he was presented with the Franz Boas Award from the American Anthropology Association for his exemplary contributions to Anthropology. His newest work: Reflections of a Transborder Anthropologist from Netzahualcóyotl to Aztlán, was published in 2020 (Tucson: University of Arizona Press).
Area(s) of Training
anthropology, applied anthropology, cultural anthropology, ethnography, ethnology
Area(s) of Expertise
urban and regional anthropology, applied anthropology, political ecology, language and education.
Current Area of Employment
School of Transborder Studies and School of Human Evolution and Social Change
