RUIZ TREJO, MARISA GISELE

Marisa Ruiz Trejo is a Mexican anthropologist, researcher, and feminist scholar born in Chiapas. She is currently a full professor at the Universidad Autónoma de Chiapas (UNACH), where she has also coordinated the Master’s Program in Cultural Diversity and Social Spaces.

She completed a Postdoctoral Program at the Center for Research and Gender Studies (CIEG) at the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM). She holds a Ph.D. and an M.A. in Anthropology of Migrations, Identities, and Interculturality from the Autonomous University of Madrid, and a Master of Research in Espaces, Sociétés, Cultures des Amériques (E.S.C.Am.) from the Université de Toulouse-Le Mirail, France.

Her teaching experience includes undergraduate and graduate courses in Political Anthropology, History of Anthropology, Anthropological Fieldwork, and Feminist and Gender Theories.

Her research is situated at the intersection of postcolonial, decolonial, and transnational studies, with a particular focus on feminist epistemologies, women in anthropology, and the relationships between memory, justice, and feminisms in Latin America.

She has conducted fieldwork and academic collaborations in France, Spain, the United States, Mexico, and Central America. As a doctoral student, she has held visiting positions at New York University (2014, 2019) and the University of California, Berkeley (2012). Her distinctions include the Edmundo O’Gorman Fellowship at Columbia University (2021), a Fulbright Visiting Professorship at New York University (2022) and Visiting Heath Professorship at Grinnell College (2025).

Her doctoral research examined gender, migration, and community radio, with a focus on migrant domestic workers. She has also contributed to historical-anthropological expert reports on racism, genocide, and sexual violence against Q’eqchi’ Indigenous women in the Sepur Zarco case in Guatemala.

She is the author of books, articles, and book chapters on feminist epistemologies and decolonial practices in Chiapas and Central America. Her current research focuses on recovering the intellectual genealogies of women in the social sciences, particularly in anthropology, and critically examining the epistemological and political conditions of knowledge production.

She is a member of the Feminist Pluridiversities Collective and collaborates with independent feminist anthropological networks in Mexico and Latin America. She is also a member of the Working Group “Feminist and Gender Anthropology” of the Latin American Association of Anthropology (ALA) and serves on the Steering Committee and the Commission on “Feminist and Gender Anthropology” of the College of Ethnologists and Anthropologists of Mexico (CEAS), among other academic networks. During 2023–2025, she served as a representative of the International Union of Anthropological and Ethnological Sciences (IUAES).

Her academic trajectory includes collaborations with leading scholars such as Marta Casaús, Arlene Dávila, Pamela Calla, Ramón Grosfoguel, and Paul B. Preciado. She has participated in research projects on transnational representations and decolonial artistic practices, as well as in feminist and queer research collectives.

Education
Postdoctoral Program in the Center of Research and Gender Studies, at the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM)

Ph.D. Anthropology of migrations, identities, and interculturality, Latin American Studies Program, Autonomous University of Madrid

Master of Research: Espaces, Sociétés, Cultures des Amériques (E.S.C.Am.), Université de Toulouse-Le Mirail

M.A. Anthropology of migrations, identities, and interculturality, Latin American Studies Program, Autonomous University of Madrid

Teaching experience
Undergraduate and postgraduate classes: Political Anthropology, History of Anthropology, Social and Cultural Practices in Anthropology fieldwork. Feminist and Gender theories.

Research interests
Postcolonial, decolonial, and transnational studies; feminist epistemologies, theories, and practices; women in anthropology; memory, justice, and feminisms.

International research stays
2019- Visiting scholar at the Anthropology Department, New York University

2014- Visiting student at the Anthropology Department and Center For Latin American and Caribbean Studies (CLACS), University of New York (NYU)

2012- Visiting student at the ethnic studies department, University of California, Berkeley