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Susan Sage Heinzelman, Director 116 Inner Campus Dr Stop A4900, GEB 4.200C, Austin Texas 78712 • 512-471-5765

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Rebecca M. Torres

Assistant Professor — Ph.D., University of California at Davis

Curriculum Vitae
Rebecca M. Torres

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Biography

Rebecca Torres has worked in diverse topics related to rural development and reduction of poverty in Latin America and in the Southern United States. Her research includes migration, agricultural change, and touristic development in developing countries in the context of globalization. She is currently conducting a comprehensive research, education, and community support project focused on rural transformation and Latino migration in the Southern United States and Mexico supported by the National Science Foundation (NSF). 

Selected Publications (*peer reviewed)

*(Accepted) Torres, R. and L. Carte, “Community participatory appraisal in migration research:  connecting neoliberalism, rural restructuring and mobility,” Transactions of the Institute of British Geographers

*Torres, R. and M. Wicks-Asbun (2013) “Undocumented Students’ Narratives of Liminal Citizenship: High Aspirations, Exclusion and ‘In-Between’ Identities,” Professional Geographer, Focus Special Issue on Diversity, Inclusion and Participation in Geography, published online January 8, 2013 (1-10), print version: forthcoming 2013

*Torres, R., R. Heyman, S. Muñoz, L. Apgar, E. Timm, C. Tzintzún, C. Hale, J. McKiernan-Gonzalez, S. Speed and E. Tang (2012) “Building Austin, Building Justice:  Immigrant Construction Workers, Precarious Labor Regimes and Social Citizenship,” Geoforum, published online December 4, 2012 (1-11), print version: March 2013, vol. 45, 145-155

*Popke, J. and R. Torres (2012) “Neoliberalization and transnational migration in the Totonacapán,” Annals of the Association of American Geographers, published online February 29, 2012 (1-19), print version: January 2013, vol. 103 (1) 211-229

Torres, R. and J.  Momsen (eds) (2011) Tourism and Agriculture: New Geographies of Consumption, Production and Rural Restructuring, Series: Contemporary Geographies of Leisure, Tourism and Mobility, Routledge: London and New York [ISBN: 978-0-415-58429-6]

*Torres, R. and J. Momsen (2005) “Gringolandia: The Construction of a New Tourist Space in Mexico.” Annals of the Association of American Geographers, vol. 95 (2) 314-335

*Torres, R. (2003) “Linkages Between Tourism and Agriculture in Mexico. “Annals of Tourism Research, vol. 30 (3) 546-566

Interests

Rural Development, Poverty, Migration, Gender, Tourism, Agricultural Transformation, Latin America

WGS 393 • Gender And Migration

47290 • Fall 2012
Meets TH 500pm-800pm GRG 408
(also listed as GRG 396T, LAS 388 )
show description

After many decades of scholarship that virtually ignored gender, scholars increasingly have come to recognize the highly gendered nature of migration and its multiple outcomes.  Gender analysis is critical to migration studies, not only because of the gendered nature of mobility and labor, but also because it is the key social construct upon which we organize our lives and society.  Men and women experience, negotiate, reconstitute, enact and respond to migration in deeply different ways, even within the same family and community. Understanding these differences, across multiple scales in diverse places, is important to gauge the uneven impacts of migration.  In this course we seek to:  1) discern the distinct forms  in which men and women experience, negotiate, resist, enact and adapt to migration and current neoliberal practices often underlying (im)mobilities, as well as the sources of these differences; 2) comprehend how migration has unevenly reshaped various facets of life for immigrants and their families –  such as material accumulation and consumption, desires, aspirations, division of labor, mobility,  power relations, responsibilities, inclusion, exclusion and identity across gender, place and scale; 4) To examine, critically, current migration and development discourse and policy in light of the  specificities and differences of  place, scale, gender and race/ethnicity in envisaging future alternatives.

 

This course focuses on contemporary transformations in global gender and  migration from an interdisciplinary social science perspective, but with a strong emphasis on the work of feminist geographers.  In particular feminist geographies of migration pay close attention to dimensions such as the spatialities and social constructions of power; the politics of scale; gender divisions of mobility and labor; geographies of responsibility and care; critical theorizations of space and place; indentities; emotion and affect; situated knowledges, among others.  We will approach topics through a variety of methods including critical readings of academic, ethnographic and more popular texts; seminar discussions (both instructor and student facilitated); in-class and  student research paper presentations.  To illustrate current trends and processes we will examine case studies from different parts of the globe, however the course will have a heavy Latin America/US migration orientation.

WGS 393 • Gender And Migration

47865 • Spring 2011
Meets TH 400pm-700pm GRG 408
(also listed as GRG 396T, LAS 388 )
show description

After many decades of scholarship that virtually ignored gender, scholars increasingly have come to recognize the highly gendered nature of migration and its multiple outcomes.  Gender analysis is critical to migration studies, not only because of the gendered nature of mobility and labor, but also because it is the key social construct upon which we organize our lives and society.  Men and women experience, negotiate, reconstitute, enact and respond to migration in deeply different ways, even within the same family and community. Understanding these differences, across multiple scales in diverse places, is important to gauge the uneven impacts of migration.  In this course we seek to:  1) discern the distinct forms  in which men and women experience, negotiate, resist, enact and adapt to migration and current neoliberal practices often underlying (im)mobilities, as well as the sources of these differences; 2) comprehend how migration has unevenly reshaped various facets of life for immigrants and their families –  such as material accumulation and consumption, desires, aspirations, division of labor, mobility,  power relations, responsibilities, inclusion, exclusion and identity across gender, place and scale; 4) To examine, critically, current migration and development discourse and policy in light of the  specificities and differences of  place, scale, gender and race/ethnicity in envisaging future alternatives.

 

This course focuses on contemporary transformations in global gender and  migration from an interdisciplinary social science perspective, but with a strong emphasis on the work of feminist geographers.  In particular feminist geographies of migration pay close attention to dimensions such as the spatialities and social constructions of power; the politics of scale; gender divisions of mobility and labor; geographies of responsibility and care; critical theorizations of space and place; indentities; emotion and affect; situated knowledges, among others.  We will approach topics through a variety of methods including critical readings of academic, ethnographic and more popular texts; seminar discussions (both instructor and student facilitated); in-class and  student research paper presentations.  To illustrate current trends and processes we will examine case studies from different parts of the globe, however the course will have a heavy Latin America/US migration orientation. 

download syllabus

Past and Future Courses

Future Courses

UGS 302 - Latino Migration Narratives

Spring 2012 

Course Description

This course explores the Latino migration experience through migrant stories, or narratives, as documented through testimonial literature, (auto)-biography, ethnography, novels, film, photography and art. We will examine both individual and collective representations of the lived experience of migrants, and situate them within broader current social, political, cultural and economic immigration debates.

Migration is among the most pressing and controversial issues of our time. Examining migration through stories, which are expressions of everyday life experiences by the actors themselves, places a human face on the highly contested issue that is prominent in the public arena. This approach enables students to understand how international, domestic and local policy and practice reshape the life experiences of migrants, and how they in turn respond, negotiate, resist and attempt to access opportunities.

Past Courses

GRG 38143 / LAS 388 - Mexican Migration Research Seminar 

Fall 2008

Course Description

This course explores contemporary research on the “New Geography of Mexican Migration” to the US, with an emphasis on new origins and destinations, neoliberal restructuring and migration, rural transformation and migration, political and social citizenship,  indigenous migration, migration and development,“the left behind,” the gendered nature of migration and the relationship between internal and international migration, among other topics.  The seminar will take a “hands-on” approach, with students organizing and collaborating in 2-3 different interdisciplinary research teams.  Over the course of the semester, each team of researchers will engage in a major writing project -- specifically to analyze and prepare a publishable quality academic manuscript based on original qualitative and quantitative data from one of 2-3 different field studies.  These studies include: 1) Mexican migration from the Tierra Caliente region (Michoacán) to rural North Carolina; 2) Rural transformation & settlement in the US South; 3) Tourism-driven internal and new international migration in the Yucatan (Cancun & rural communities of Quintana Roo).  Within this context, students will have the opportunity to explore a variety of theoretical perspectives potentially relevant to their projects including:  global neoliberalization; transnationalism and transnational spaces; geographies of hope, fear and desire; feminist theory, citizenship, identity and subjectivity, actor/network theory, embodiment, subaltern studies and political ecology, as well as those identified by research teams.  In addition, we will also explore relevant methodological issues and approaches in migration research including: research design, quantitative/qualitative synergies and tensions, empirical/theoretical divisions, migrant narratives and critical ethnography,  cross-border collaborations, participatory appraisal, researcher  positionality and field work dilemmas, among others.  

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