Faculty bio | 541-346-9134

Lynn Stephen is an academic expert on immigration, asylum and gendered asylum in the U.S., gendered violence, transnational communities, indigenous immigrants from Latin America, Mexico, and Central America, and Latino community histories in the Northwest. A 2022 fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, Stephen was cited for “distinguished contributions to the fields of anthropology, Latinx and Latin American Studies, particularly for her theorizing and ethnography of Indigenous women, Indigenous migrants, transborder communities, migration and social movements.” She founded the Center for Latino/a and Latin American Studies. She has written or edited 12 books and more than 90 academic articles. She was president elect and president of the Latin American Studies Association (LASA) from June 1, 2018 - June 1, 2019. She currently serves as past president from June 2019-June 2020. The Latin American Studies Association (LASA) has 12,000 members in up to 80 countries. She is currently conducting research on access to justice for Guatemalan indigenous refugees fleeing violence in the Guatemalan justice system and in US immigration courts. In residence at the Center for U.S.-Mexican Studies at the University of California San Diego as a fellow during 2018-2019, she spent time in Tijuana, a shelter for migrant families in San Diego, and in Central America and Mexico. She is currently writing and giving public talks on why Central Americas flee their countries and come to the U.S.

Recent Media:
The muxe, Mexico’s ‘third gender,’ are part of a worldwide LGBTQ+ movement (Los Angeles Times, Jan. 11, 2024)
Racist remarks: Hurt, betrayal among LA’s Indigenous people (Associated Press, Oct. 12, 2022)
COVID-19 has hit farmworkers especially hard, UO studies show (Around the O, Aug. 30, 2021)
US Asylum Laws Must Catch up With the Reality of Today’s Refugees (The Globe Post, Feb. 18, 2021)
Oregon farmworkers face COVID challenges, new study says (Around the O, Sept. 25, 2020)
Communicating Covid-19 Information to Indigenous Immigrants (Undark Magazine, Dec. 8, 2020)
Latin American women are disappearing and dying under lockdown (The Conversation, Aug. 24, 2020)
Silence and Gendered Violence in the COVID-19 Pandemic (The Globe Post, July 9, 2020)
When Homeless Means Homelandless: Guatemalans in Lincoln County (The Dissident Voice, May 1, 2020)
Curious: Why People Try To Enter The U.S. (Jefferson Public Radio, Sept. 6, 2019)
Trump’s Plan to Indefinitely Detain Families Seeking Asylum is No Solution (The Globe Post, Sept. 4, 2019)
What role do immigrants play in U.S. labor force? (Marketplace, April 5, 2018)
Latino Roots, Oregon Branches (Around the O, June 26, 2017)
Guatemalan Refugees Come To Oregon (Jefferson Public Radio, June 27, 2016)
6 die in violent clashes between police and teachers union in Mexico (Los Angeles Times, June 20, 2016)
Oaxaca festival in Mexico highlights indigenous pride (BBC, July 25, 2010)