José Miguel Chávez Leyva is a PhD candidate at the University of Texas at El Paso, studying Borderlands History. He was born in Texas and grew up in the Southwest, splitting his time between El Paso, TX and Tucson, AZ.
As an undergraduate, he studied archaeology of the Southwest, and this has informed his work as a historian. His primary research now is on the environmental ethnohistory of Northern Mexico and the U.S. Southwest during the pre-Columbian and Spanish Colonial eras. His secondary research interests involve race, ethnicity, and environmental justice in the modern borderlands.
He has also been very engaged in public history and digital humanities, gaining experience by working with a variety of organizations and institutions. He has held internships with the El Paso Museum of History and La Mujer Obrera. Additionally, he co-founded a student organization dedicated to public history, the Association of Applied Border History, and was a participant at the inaugural meeting of Latinos in Heritage Conservation.
As an undergraduate, he studied archaeology of the Southwest, and this has informed his work as a historian. His primary research now is on the environmental ethnohistory of Northern Mexico and the U.S. Southwest during the pre-Columbian and Spanish Colonial eras. His secondary research interests involve race, ethnicity, and environmental justice in the modern borderlands.
He has also been very engaged in public history and digital humanities, gaining experience by working with a variety of organizations and institutions. He has held internships with the El Paso Museum of History and La Mujer Obrera. Additionally, he co-founded a student organization dedicated to public history, the Association of Applied Border History, and was a participant at the inaugural meeting of Latinos in Heritage Conservation.