Joel Zapata

My research focuses on the greater U.S.-Mexico borderlands, the Spanish borderlands, the North American West, the South, and the lands where these regions meet, the Southern Great Plains. Within this geographic span, my book projects engage several fields, including Mexican American, Native American, migration, labor, and colonialism.

My scholarship has also concentrated on women’s labor and organizing on the U.S.-Mexico border, African American and Mexican American social justice movements and their coalescing, Latina/o-Indigenous relations, along with digital humanities. Through the connections that a long-term approach reveals, I have brought, and continue bring, these various interests together.

My public humanities experience includes working and volunteering within publicly accessible oral history projects as well as preservation projects focused on harnessing historical assets for community-oriented development. My research has also been included within publications for the wider public and government agencies.