Dr. Bejarano, a native of Anthony, NM, received her BA and MA from New Mexico State University, and her Ph.D. from Arizona State University, School of Justice Studies (Interdisciplinary Ph.D. in the School of Justice Studies) August 2001.
Dr. Bejarano's publications and research interests focus on border violence, youth cultures, immigration issues, and gender violence at the U.S.-Mexico border.
Cynthia Bejarano (she/her/ella), a Regents Professor and the College of Arts and Sciences Stan Fulton Endowed Chair, her publications, research interests and activism focus on a myriad of borderlands issues through activism and scholarship including migrant and immigrant advocacy, working to end gender-based violence and feminicides, farmworker advocacy, and critiquing the militarization/securitization of the border and its impact on border people. Bejarano has engaged in and written extensively on these issues including working for migrant and immigrant rights.
For her dedication in and outside of the classroom, she has received the Donald C. Roush Excellence in Teaching Award, the 2010 Governors Award for Outstanding New Mexico Women, and the Critical Educators in Social Justice (CESJ) Special Interest Group's Community Advocacy Award among others. As a farmworker advocate since the 1990s, she serves as the NMSU Principal Investigator of the U.S. Department of Education’s College Assistance Migrant Program since 2002. The program has served nearly 600 first-year farmworker students at NMSU.
As an anti-feminicide activist, Bejarano co-founded Amigos de las Mujeres de Juárez (2001-2011), and in 2014, Bejarano served as a tribunal judge specializing in international human rights and gender-based violence for the Tribunal Permanente de los Pueblos in Chihuahua City, Chihuahua, Mexico. To date, she works with several human rights groups in Chihuahua, Mexico. Her publications include, Que ònda? urban youth culture and border identity (2007), Terrorizing Women: Feminicide in the Americas (2010), and numerous peer-reviewed scholarly articles, chapters, and creative works. Currently, she is co-creating with Dr. Sylvia Fernandez, “Fuerza Feminista” a feminist and transborder digital humanities project that documents, contextualizes, and will make digitally accessible the activist and feminist participation of the first local feminist movements in the Paso del Norte Region. This project is in collaboration with Dr. Julia Monarrez Fragoso from COLEF Ciudad Juárez. Bejarano is also working with co-editor, Cristina Morales on an anthology, Frontera Madre(hood)©, a collection of mothers, activists, and scholars from across the U.S.-Mexico border to be published with the University of Arizona Press in 2024.
Dr. Bejarano, in collaboration with G&SS learners, started Transnational Solidarity Day in Spring 2015.
G&SS Academic Director
Mailing Address
Gender & Sexuality Studies
Box 30001 MSC 3E
Las Cruces, NM 88003-8001
Physical Location: Second Floor Breland Hall
Website, Design, Digital Media, & Content
G&SS Program History
NMSU DEPARTMENT OF ENGLISH Clara Belle Williams Hall Rm.132, P.O. Box 30001, MSC 3E, Las Cruces, NM 88003, Tel: 5756463931 Administrative Email: Ruth Gracia, rgracia@nmsu.edu Department Head: Dr. Elizabeth Schirmer, eschirme@nmsu.edu
