Dr. Laura Elena Belmonte is an Associate Professor in Chicana and Chicano Studies at the University of New Mexico’s Department of Chicana and Chicano Studies. She was born and raised in the South Valley of Albuquerque, Nuevo México, to Mexican immigrant parents, and her formative years learning about her family’s culture as well as the culture of her surroundings in Nuevo México have led her to her research on Chicana and Mexicana feminism, border and transnational studies, and Chicanx political activism. A first-generation university student, she completed her B.A. in Secondary Education with concentrations in Spanish and Bilingual Education in 2009 and her M.A. in Spanish with an emphasis in Hispanic Literature in 2011 at the University of New Mexico. In 2016, she received her Ph.D. in Spanish with an emphasis in Chicano Literature and Culture from the School of International Letters and Cultures at Arizona State University. 

Dr. Belmonte’s work is rooted in her experience as a child of Mexican immigrants living in the U.S.-Mexico borderlands and experiencing spirituality and religion in a Protestant Latino church. She has published articles in Chiricú Journal: Latina/o Literatures, Arts, and Culture and Ámbitos Feministas, and has chapters published in the anthologies Transnational Chicanx Perspectives on Ana Castillo and La Plonqui: The Literary Life and Work of Margarita Cota-Cárdenas.

Dr. Belmonte’s book, Borderland Brutalities: Violence in the U.S.-Mexico Borderlands in Literature, Film, and Culture, published in June 2024 by University of New Mexico Press, is a study of cultural production that represents the violence perpetuated by both the United States and Mexican governments towards communities of color along the U.S.-Mexico Borderlands. This book is the winner of the 2025 New Mexico Book Award in the History category.

Dr. Belmonte teaches US-Mexico Border Studies, Critical Thought in Chicana and Chicano Studies, Chicana Feminisms, Escritoras Chicanas, and Immigration and Assimilation.