Beth Baker joined the anthropology department at CSULA in 2002. Her primary areas of interests include migration, incarceration/detention and deportation, nationalism and the state, and urban and applied anthropology. Geographically, her areas of interest include Latin America and the United States. She has done fieldwork in Southern Mexico, Ecuador, El Salvador, New York, and Southern California. Dr. Baker is author of Salvadoran Migration to Southern California: Redefining El Hermano Lejano (University Press of Florida, 2004) and articles on migration, the immigrants’ rights movement, deportation, and anthropology.
Teaching Interests
Dr. Baker teaches general education, introductory, advanced undergraduate, and graduate courses in anthropology and Latin American Studies. She likes to incorporate ethnography into classes and engaging students in fieldwork, community service, and community engagement projects. Dr. Baker is dedicated to helping undergraduate and graduate students develop individual programs of research and acquire the skills necessary to enter into a career in cultural anthropology or continue on to graduate study.
Research Interests
Dr. Baker’s research interests include migration, incarceration/detention and deportation, citizenship, nationalism and the state, and social movements.
Educational background
Ph.D. Anthropology 1999
University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, NM
M.A. Anthropology 1991
University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, NM
B.A. Liberal Arts 1989
Sarah Lawrence College, Bronxville, NY