Laura Elena Belmonte
Dr. Laura Elena Belmonte is an Assistant Professor of Chicana and Chicano Studies whose research focuses on Chicana and Mexicana feminism, border and transnational studies, and Chicana/o/x spiritual and political activism. Her research is deeply intertwined with her experience as a child of immigrants, living in the U.S.-Mexico borderlands, and experiencing spirituality as a dignifying and decolonial praxis within the Latina/o/x faith community with whom she worships. As a literary and cultural studies scholar, Dr. Belmonte’s work centers the study of the cultural and literary production of Mexicanos, Chicanos, and/or Mexican-Americans and focuses on these cultural expressions in the U.S. and along the U.S.-Mexico Border, thus her work is also transnational. As a Chicana scholar, Dr. Belmonte dedicates her research efforts and publications to exploring the borderlands and border-crossings, the violence perpetuated at these sites, and decolonial praxises through spirituality and activism that reinforce incredible resilience and dignity that marginalized communities bring forth in their borderlands’ expressions. She is currently working on a book about the manifestation of border violence in literature and cultural production that is tentatively titled Borderland Brutalities: Violence in the U.S.-Mexico Borderlands in Literature, Culture, and Art.
