Isabel Martinez

Associate Professor and Director of Latinx, Latin American and Caribbean Studies

Dr. Isabel Martinez is a Latinx youth immigration scholar whose research has primarily focused on the transnational lives of unaccompanied immigrant teenagers from Mexico/Central America. She is currently developing the New York Latinx Comedy Project, an oral history project that situates Latinx voices within a history of the NYC stand-up comedy industry. She is the founding director of the Unaccompanied Latin American Minor Project (U-LAMP) and is the Fall 2022 CMAS Visiting Scholar at UH.

View CV

Awards & Honors

The Kwando Kinshasa Excellence in Mentoring Award, Ronald E. McNair Post-Baccalaureate Achievement Program, 2020, 2015Outstanding Educator, New York State Youth Leadership Council, 2018Woodrow Wilson National Fellowship Foundation, 2013-2014; Distinguished Teaching Prize, 2012

Selected Publications

Isabel Martinez. (2021). How COVID-19 has impacted NYC’s Latinx Comedy Scene. Latino Rebels, https://www.latinorebels.com/2021/01/05/covidlatinocomedyscene/

Isabel Martínez. (2020). “Developing the Language to Immigrate: Immigration Discourses in the Lives of Mexican Immigrant Youths.” Journal of Adolescent and Adult Literacy, 64, 3, 347-350. https://ila.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/jaal.1104

Isabel Martinez (2019). Becoming Transnational Youth Workers: Independent Mexican Teenage Migrants Survival and Social Mobility. New Brunswick: Rutgers University Press. https://www.rutgersuniversitypress.org/becoming-transnational-youth-workers/9780813589794

Isabel Martinez. (2018). “Why They Leave: Latin American Immigrant Youths and Quests for Survival.” In M. Crock and L. Benson (Eds), Protecting Migrant Children: In Search of Best Practice, Edward Elgar Publishing, Human Rights Handbook Series. https://www.e-elgar.com/shop/usd/protecting-migrant-children-9781786430250.html

Irma V. Montelongo and Isabel Martinez. (2018). “Building Latinx Solidarity Through Global Learning Communities in the 21st Century.” In G. Nuñez and A. Gonzalez, Community Engagement and High Impact Practices in Higher Education, Dubuque, IA: Kendall Hunt Publishing. https://he.kendallhunt.com/product/community-engagement-and-high-impact-practices-higher-education

Isabel Martinez. (2016). “Supporting Two Households: Mexican Immigrant Youth and Their Absences from U.S. Schools.” Journal of Latinos and Education, 15, 3, 229-243. https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/15348431.2015.1131690

Isabel Martinez (2016). “Miseducating Latina Researchers: Challenges and Consequences in the Field.” Latino Studies, 14, 4,533-544. https://link.springer.com/article/10.1057/s41276-016-0021-3

Isabel Martinez (2009). What’s Age Gotta Do With It? Understanding the Age-Identities and School-Going Practices of Mexican Immigrant Youth In New York City, The High School Journal, 92, 4, 34-48. https://muse.jhu.edu/article/264161