Photo of Arlene Davila

Arlene Dávila

Professor; Founding Director of the Latinx Project

Education

  • 1996 Ph.D. in Cultural Anthropology, The Graduate Center, CUNY
  • 1990 M.A. in Anthropology and Museum Studies, NYU
  • 1987 B.A. in Anthropology, Tufts University

Areas of Research/Interest

comparative ethnic studies, media and visual culture, urban studies and geographies of inequality, consumption and material culture, political economy, and Latinx and Latin American Studies.

External Affiliations

American Anthropological Association, American Studies Association, Latin American Studies Association

Bio

I am a Professor of Anthropology and American Studies at New York University whose research spans urban ethnography, the political economy of culture and media, consumption, immigration and geographies of inequality and race. In particular, my work has focused on the ethnographic study of the local, national and global dynamics of contemporary U.S. Latino/a and Latin American cultural politics. These research interests grew out of from my early work in Latino/a and culturally specific museums and spaces in New York City, and have developed through my continued involvement in Latino/a advocacy and my interest in creative industries across the Americas.

Publications

  • Latinx Art: Artists, Markets, and Politics
    Duke University Press, 2020
  • El Mall: The Spatial and Class Politics of Shopping Malls in Latin America
    University of California Press, 2016.
  • Culture Works: Space, Value and Mobility Across the Neoliberal Americas
    NYU Press, 2012.
  • Latinos Inc.: Marketing and the Making of a People. Updated Edition with a New Preface
    University of California Press, 2012. (Originally published in 2001)
  • Latino Spin: Public Image and the Whitewashing of Race.
    NYU Press, 2008.
  • Barrio Dreams: Puerto Ricans, Latinos and the Neoliberal City
    University of California Press, 2004.
  • Sponsored Identities: Cultural Politics in Puerto Rico
    Temple University Press, 1997.

Co-Edited Volumes

2014 Contemporary Latin@ Media: Production, Circulation and Politics (edited with Yeidy Rivero) New York University Press.

2014 On Latin@s and the Immigration Debate. Edited Vital Subjects Dossier in American Anthropologist Vol. 116, No. 1, pp. 146–159.

2001 Mambo Montage: The Latinization of New York (edited volume, co-editor with Agustin Lao). New York, NY: Columbia University Press.