Martha Idalia Chew Sánchez, Ph.D.

I am the current Co-coordinator of the Caribbean Latin American and Latino Studies Program. My research and teaching interests are focused on Latino Studies, Cultural Studies, Musicology, Border Studies, Ethnic Studies, Human Rights, and Cultural Ecology. The courses that I normally teach in this program are: CLAS 103 Introduction to Ethnic Studies and Social Justice; clas 105 Introduction to Latino Studies; CLAS 251 La Frontera: Cultural Identities in the U.S./Mexico Border; CLAS 303: Gender and Health in Latinx Communities;  CLAS 291: Qualitative Methods; CLAS 256 Latino Popular Culture;  CLAS 352: Clinic on the Effects of Globalization on Human Rights. The main topics covered in this clinic are the war on drugs, feminicide, and migration to the United States. I also teach a course on.Migration, Nationalism, and Transnationalism.  I have taken students to the Yucatan Peninsula where I have taught the course “Cultural Ecology and the Ejido System in Yucatan.” The summer course “Cultural Ecology and The Ejido System in Yucatan” was developed with a Mellon Grant. and we have had academic and logistical support with  Faculty from the Universidad Autónoma Chapingo, in the Centro Regional de la Peninsula de Yucatan. 

I grew up in the Mexico/US border and I have taken students to the US/Mexico border on a regular basis as part of the course: La Frontera: Cultural Identities in the US-Mexico Border.  One of the gratifications of being a faculty member at St. Lawrence University is to have the institutional support to link my teaching, scholarship, and service in a holistic manner. enjoy working with students to find out their own research interests and passions, particularly the courses that involve exposing students to methodological and moral issues in their research such as processual analysis and multi-perspectivity. I have been quite interested in integrating students’ learning with issues of social justice. In 2011 I was the recipient of the  St. Lawrence University Teaching award "Louis and Frances Maslow award" .

I am the author of the book Corridos in Migrant Memory, published by the University of New Mexico in 2006. I am the co-editor,  with my colleague Dr. David Henderson, of the book Scattered Musics: Ethnic, Racial, and Regional Configurations through Music Performances by the University Press of Mississippi, 2021. The book Colonialidad, Feminicidio y Neoliberalism, was published by Eterno Femenino Press in 2021. I am currently editing the manuscript Migration, Dislocation, and Place Making in Mexican Popular Music . My main two lines of research are 1) Human Rights in Mexico, particularly focused on the "War on Drugs" and feminicide" and, 2) Identity and Musical Performances in the Mexican Diaspora. I enjoyed the experience and opportunity to be the Director of the St. Lawrence University Spain Program in Madrid, Spain, during the academic years 2008-2009 and 2014-2015, and 2018-2019.