Faculty Advisory Board
Ruth Gomberg-Muñoz
Title/s: Assistant Professor of Anthropology
Office #: BVM Tower 807
Phone: 773.508.3582
Email: rgombergmunoz@luc.edu
About
Ruth Gomberg-Muñoz is a sociocultural anthropologist with research and teaching interests in political economy, migration, Latinos/as in the U.S., race and class, applied anthropology, and urban ethnography. Her first research project explored how undocumented workers in Chicago negotiated perceptions of their labor as they struggled to attain autonomy, security, and dignity. Her second study followed undocumented people and their family members as they undertook immigration processing in an attempt to gain legal permanent residency. Dr. Gomberg-Muñoz has also been an ethnographer and organizer in Chicago’s immigrant rights movement since 2006.
Resources for Undocumented Students
Loyola is committed to providing accurate information and resources for current and prospective undocumented students, their families, and allies. For details, please visit Loyola's page for non-citizen students at: http://luc.edu/diversity/resources/undocumentedstudentresources.
Research Opportunities for Students
Dr. Gomberg-Muñoz believes that students learn best by doing, and she encourages interested students to contact her about opportunities for gaining practical experience in ethnographic fieldwork. Students have used these opportunities to conduct research funded by LUROP Fellowships, Provost Awards, and Johnson Scholarships, and to complete credits in Independent Study or Fieldwork.
Selected Publications
Books
2016 Gomberg-Muñoz, Ruth. Becoming Legal: Immigration Law and Mixed Status Families. New York: Oxford University Press. http://www.amazon.com/Becoming-Legal-Immigration-Status-Families/dp/0190276010/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1462204834&sr
2011 Gomberg-Muñoz, Ruth. Labor and Legality: An Ethnography of a Mexican Immigrant Network. New York: Oxford University Press. http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0199739382
Articles and Book Chapters
2016 Wheatley, Abby C. and Ruth Gomberg-Muñoz. Keep Moving: Collective Agency Along the Migrant Trail. Citizenship Studies 20 (3–4): 396–410. doi: 10.1080/13621025.2016.1158351
2015 Gomberg-Muñoz, Ruth. The Punishment/El Castigo: Undocumented Latinos and U.S. Immigration Processing. Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/1369183X.2015.1056118
2014 Gomberg-Muñoz, Ruth and Laura Nussbaum-Barberena. Everyday Enforcement: Heightened Immigration Enforcement and Community Responses in the United States. [Introduction to special issue, Ruth Gomberg-Muñoz, Laura Nussbaum-Barberena, and Angela Stuesse, eds.] City and Society 26(1): 3–9.
2013 Gomberg-Muñoz, Ruth. 2012 Public Anthropology Year in Review: Actually, Rick, Florida Could Use a Few More Anthropologists. American Anthropologist 115(2): 282–292.
2013 Flores-Gonzales, Nilda and Ruth Gomberg-Muñoz. FloResiste: Transnational Labor, Motherhood and Activism. In Immigrant Women Workers in the Neoliberal Age. Flores-Gonzalez, Guevarra, Toro-Morn, and Chang (eds.). University of Illinois Press.
2012 Gomberg-Muñoz, Ruth. Inequality in a “Postracial” Era: Race, Immigration, and Criminalization of Low-Wage Labor. The DuBois Review 9(2): 339–353.
2011 Gomberg-Muñoz, Ruth and Laura Nussbaum-Barberena. Is Immigration Policy Labor Policy?: Immigration Enforcement, Undocumented Labor, and the State. Human Organization 70(4): 366–375.
2011 Cabrera, Rosa and Ruth Gomberg-Muñoz. Conceptions of Health and Wellness in Two Chicago Neighborhoods. Museums and Social Issues 5(2): 202–215.
2010 Gomberg-Muñoz, Ruth. Willing to Work: Agency and Vulnerability in an Undocumented Immigrant Network. American Anthropologist 112(2):295-307.
2009 Gomberg-Muñoz, Ruth. Not Just Mexico’s Problem: Labor Migration from Mexico to the United States (1900-2000). Journal of Latino-Latin American Studies 3(3):2-18.
