Professor Yolanda Valencia
Tenure-Track
Department of Geography & Environmental Systems Language, Literacy and Culture
About
I am a Latinx feminist human geographer. In 2019, I completed my Phd in Geography at the University of Washington. My work focuses on analyzing how Latinx people – classified as “illegal immigrants” through the immigration law – build meaningful life in the US in the midst of state-sponsored oppression across time and space. My most resent publications include, Latinx Geographies: Opening Conversations in ACME, 2023; and Storytelling Earth and Body in the Annals of the American Association of Geographers, 2022. I teach classes on Geographies of Migration, Qualitative Methods in Geography and Beyond, and Latin American Geographies. I am looking forwad to co-leading a study abroad focused on climate change, adaptation and migration in Oaxaca Mexico.
Research interests
Geographies of Latinx migration (development and displacement, borderlands, citizenship, illegality, mobility)
Critical geographies of race (Latinx geographies: Black geographies and Indigenous geographies, racial states, racial capitalism, geographies of survival and well-being)
Latinx feminist methods and theory (de-colonizing methodologies, border thinking, epistemic disobedience, epistemologies of the south)
Teaching interests
1) Geographies of migration: displacement, borders, and destination
2) Latinx, Indigenous, and Black Geographies
3) Qualitative Methods in Geography
4) Geographies of Global Inequalities
Education
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Ph D, Geography
— University of Washington (2019) Inmigrante Indocumentado: Producing thriving communities in the midst of racial structural inequalitie
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MS, Geography
— University of Washington (2014) Leyes Crueles - Lugares Violentos: Mexican women’s testimonios along the migration journey
Publications
Presentations
- “Abya Yala Casa Virtual: A Community Engaged Digital Collaboration” 2025
- “Abya Yala Casa Virtual: A Community Engaged Digital Collaboration” 2025
Courses Taught
- Climate Change and Migration in Oaxaca, MX
- Special Topics in GES - Geographies of Migration
- Qualitative Methods in Geography