Campus Directory

Christina Leza

Professor

Anthropology

Christina Leza is a linguistic anthropologist and Yoeme-Chicana activist scholar whose research interests include Indigenous peoples of the Americas, Indigenous rights, discourse and identity, racial and ethnic discourses, grassroots activism, cognitive anthropology, and the U.S.-Mexico border. Her research has focused on Indigenous activist responses to U.S.-Mexico border enforcement. She has also examined broader discourse patterns among Indigenous grassroots activists in the U.S. and Latin America. Her publications include Divided Peoples: Policy, Activism and Indigenous Identities on the U.S.-Mexico Border (University of Arizona Press) and "Hip Hop is Resistance: Indigeneity on the U.S.-Mexico Border" in the edited volume Music and Modernity among First Peoples of North America (Wesleyan University Press). She is also co-editor of The Everyday Language of White Racism, Second Edition by Jane H. Hill (Wiley-Blackwell). Her recent research has focused on popular culture forms including contemporary music and film by artists of color as forms of antiracist movement.

 

Contact Info

(719) 389-6131
Barnes #306

Activities & Interests


  • Linguistic anthropology
  • Ethnic and racial identities
  • Indigenous peoples
  • Discourse and ideology
  • Racist discourses
  • Grassroots social movement
  • U.S.-Mexico border and Latin America

Publications

2025. The Curation of Discourse on the U.S.-Mexico Border. Shuddhashar FreeVoice, Issue 42, Curated, February 1. https://shuddhashar.com/curation-of-discourse-on-the-u-s-mexico-border/

2024. The Everyday Language of White Racism by Jane H. Hill, Revised Edition. Co-editor with Jacqueline Messing and Barbra Meek. Oxford: Wiley Blackwell.

2020. A Linguistic Analysis of Cory Gardner’s Speech. Colorado Times Recorder, November 1. https://coloradotimesrecorder.com/2020/11/a-linguistic-analysis-of-cory-gardners-speech/32318/

2020. “What Is the U.S.-Mexico Border to Indigenous Peoples Who Have Lived There?” YES! Magazine, July 7. Invited essay.  https://www.yesmagazine.org/opinion/2020/07/07/mexico-border-indigenous-leaders/

2019. Divided Peoples: Policy, Activism and Indigenous Identities on the U.S.-Mexico Border. Tucson: University of Arizona Press.

2019. "For Native Americans, U.S.-Mexico border is an imaginary line." The Conversation, March 19. https://theconversation.com/for-native-americans-us-mexico-border-is-an-imaginary-line-111043

2019. "Hip Hop is Resistance": Defining Indigeneity on the U.S.-Mexico Border. In Music and Modernity among First Peoples of North America. Victoria L. Levine and Dylan Robertson, eds. Pp. 69-90. Middletown, CT: Wesleyan University Press.

2019. Handbook on Indigenous People's Border Crossing Rights Between the United States and Mexico, an online community resource. Co-authored by the Alianza Indígena Sin Fronteras / Indigenous Alliance Without Borders. https://www.indigenousalliance.org/copy-of-hom

2018. Indigenous Identities on the U.S.-Mexico Border. Journal of the Southwest 60(4): 914-936.

2018. The Representation of Indigenous Lifeways and Beliefs in U.S.-Mexico Border Indigenous Activist Discourse. Semiotica: Journal of the International Association of Semiotic Studies 224: 223-248.

2017. Book Review: Fixing the Books: Secrecy, Literacy, and Perfectibility in Indigenous New Mexico by Erin Debenport. Journal of Linguistic Anthropology 27(2): 252-254.

2015. The Divided Yoeme (Yaqui) Nation. Wicazo Sa Review 30(2): 5-27.

2009. Book Review: Arguing with Tradition: The Language of Law in Hopi Tribal Court by Justin B. Richland. Political and Legal Anthropology Review 32(2): 354-358.

2007. "Where are you from?": The Problem of Identity for the "Native" Anthropologist. Arizona Anthropologist 18: 95-99.

2002. Grammatical Images of Perception and Legitimacy: An Example from Jacaltec Maya. Texas Linguistic Forum 45: 76-83.

Regular Classes


  • AN105: Language and Culture
  • AN212: The Language of Racism
  • AN256: Language Socialization
  • AN260: Language and Gender
  • AN262: Studying Language as Social Action
  • AN310: Zombies, Vampires and Time-Traveling Turkeys: Settler Colonial Narratives
  • AN311: Language in Culture and Mind: Cognitive Anthropology

Christina Leza

Education

  • Ph.D., University of Arizona, 2009
  • M.A., University of California-Davis, 2001
  • B.A., New Mexico State University, 1999

Report an issue - Last updated: 02/26/2026