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M. Isabel Ayala

Associate Professor

Berkey Hall, 414B

(517) 353-6614

ayalam@msu.edu

Curriculum Vitae

Google Scholar

Chicano/Latino Studies Program

Area of Expertise

Environment Migration and MovementsHealth Medicine and the BodyRace Class Gender and Sexuality

Biography

María Isabel Ayala is an Associate Professor of Sociology and former Director of the Chicano/Latino Studies Program at Michigan State University. Her research agenda is grounded in an intentional refusal of monolithic narratives about Latinx communities, examining how complex and uneven processes of racialization intersect with sociodemographic contexts to shape lived experiences and meaning-making. Centering the agency and agentive practices of racialized Latinx communities, her current scholar

Education

PhD Sociology, Texas A&M University, 2007

M.S. Sociology, Texas A&M University, 2003

Publications

Ayala, María Isabel and Teresa Rivera.2 “Unapologetically Claiming the Significance of Joy In Higher Education.” Humanity & Society. Forthcoming.

2025 - Ayala, María Isabel, Magaly Ordoñez and Angelica Ruvalcaba. “Framing of Latinx Education: An Examination of Spanish Language Newspapers.” Journal of Latinos and Education 24(4):1011-1028.

2024 - Ayala, María Isabel. “Understanding Latinxs Presence in the United States.” Pp. 187-212 Race and Ethnicity: Sociology in Action, 2nd Edition (Revised edition) edited by Kathleen Odell Korgen, Maxine P. Atkinson. Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE Publications, Inc.

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