Lynn Stephen

Lynn Stephen

Distinguished Professor of Arts and Sciences
Director, Center for Latino/a and Latin American Studies
University of Oregon
Lynn Stephen

Dr. Lynn Stephen is Distinguished Professor of Arts and Sciences, Professor of Anthropology, and Director of the Center for Latino/a and Latin American Studies (CLLAS) at the University of Oregon. Stephen is a cultural anthropologist whose interdisciplinary research has been at the forefront of illuminating major challenges facing Mesoamerican indigenous peoples–out-migration, tourism, state assimilation programs and nationalism, economic development, violence and low-intensity war—and of analyzing the spectrum of local and global responses they have developed to these issues, including social movements, unique educational and knowledge systems, innovative forms of media and governance and rights claiming. Gender and its intersection with race, class, ethnicity, and nationalism has been the primary lens for much of this work. Her research over three decades has anticipated the ways that globalization is creating new forms of transborder social and political organization. Her theoretical concept of transborder communities has been widely adopted by scholars of migration in many fields, as has her research on gender in indigenous populations. Stephen has also brought her research to a broad audience through innovative public education and multi-media projects. She has authored or edited 11 books, three special journal issues and has published more than 80 scholarly articles and two films.