Martha Idalia Chew Sánchez, Ph.D.

I serve as the co-coordinator of the Caribbean, Latin American, and Latino Studies Program at St. Lawrence University. Growing up near the U.S.–Mexico border deeply shaped my personal background and academic career. In 2011, I received the St. Lawrence University Teaching Award for my work. My research and teaching focus on Latino studies, cultural studies, musicology, border studies, ethnic studies, human rights, and cultural ecology. I regularly teach courses like Introduction to Ethnic Studies and Social Justice, Introduction to Latino Studies, La Frontera: Cultural Identities in the U.S.–Mexico Border, Gender and Health in Latinx Communities, Qualitative Methods, Latino Popular Culture, and Migration, Nationalism, and Transnationalism. I also lead a clinic on the effects of globalization on human rights that covers the war on drugs, feminicide, and migration to the United States.

I enjoy taking students into the field to connect classroom learning with the real world. St. Lawrence University gives me the great support I need to combine my teaching, research, and community service. I enjoy helping students find their own research passions, especially when exploring social justice and research methods like processual analysis, which looks at how social processes change over time. I regularly lead trips to the U.S.–Mexico border for my La Frontera course where I worked with Dr. Alfredo Limas from Universidad Autónoma de Ciudad Juárez. I also developed and taught a summer course called Cultural Ecology and the Ejido System in Yucatán. The initial work of this course was funded by a Mellon Grant and supported by faculty at the Centro Académico Regional Sede Mérida Yucatán of La Universidad Autónoma Chapingo.

My research focuses primarily on identity and musical performances within the Mexican diaspora, as well as human rights in Mexico, with a specific emphasis on the War on Drugs. My published works include the monographs Corridos in Migrant Memory (University of New Mexico Press, 2006) and Colonialidad, Feminicidio y Neoliberalismo (Editorial Eterno Femenino, 2021). I am the editor of the volume Migration, Dislocation, and Place Making in Mexican Popular Music (University of New Mexico Press, 2026) and co-edited Scattered Musics: Ethnic, Racial, and Regional Configurations through Music Performances (University Press of Mississippi, 2021) in collaboration with Dr. David Henderson.

I previously served as the Director of the St. Lawrence University Spain Program in Madrid during the 2008–2009, 2014–2015, and 2018–2019 academic years. I currently hold the position of program director in Madrid once again, where I also teach the course Vaivén: Decolonizing the Atlantic. Coloniality, Latinidad and Surging Currents.