Anthony Fontes Associate Professor Peace, Human Rights & Cultural Relations
- Additional Positions at AU
- Faculty Affiliate, Ethnographies of Empire Research Cluster
- Degrees
- PhD Geography, University of California, Berkeley (2015)
BA Migration and Refugee Studies, Stanford University (2003) - Languages Spoken
- English and Spanish
- Book Currently Reading
- Theory of the Border by Thomas Nail
- Bio
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Anthony W. Fontes, geographer and ethnographer, writes and teaches about violence, migration and forced displacement, transnational illicit economies, mass incarceration, and the politics of security in the Americas. His research has been funded by the Open Society Foundation, the Andrew Mellon Foundation, and the HF Guggenheim Foundation. His first book, Mortal Doubt: Transnational Gangs and Social Order in Guatemala City (UC Press 2018), winner of the 2018 William LeoGrande Award, explores cycles of violence and migration in the making of extreme peacetime insecurity in Northern Central America and Mexico. His ethnographic fieldwork trespasses the blurred boundaries between the underworld, the state and law-abiding society, scaling between the intimate and the global to illuminate how transnational forces impact the personal and the everyday.
His current book project, “Escape from the Criminal State”, delves into the rise of powerful state-criminal networks in Guatemala, Honduras, and El Salvador and maps their impact on forced migration from the region.
Dr. Fontes is also engaged in several collaborative projects, including 1) an investigation of the evolution of the sanctuary movement in the Washington DC metropolitan area and 2) an exploration of the causes and consequences of mass incarceration in Northern Central America.
Before entering academia, he worked as an immigrant and refugee legal advocate in Cairo, Egypt and the United States, an environmental justice researcher in India, and an actor in South America. In addition to numerous scholarly publications, his work has also appeared in Newsweek, Salon, and the New York Times.
Scholarly Expertise:
• Critical Security Studies
• Refugee and Migration Studies
• Post-Colonial Studies
• Prison Studies
• Urban Studies
• Latin American Studies (especially Central America, security politics, human rights, urban inequality, illicit political economies, and migration)
Scholarly Expertise:
• Critical Security Studies
• Refugee and Migration Studies
• Post-Colonial Studies
• Prison Studies
• Urban Studies
• Latin American Studies (especially Central America, security politics, human rights, urban inequality, illicit political economies, and migration)
- See Also
- For the Media
- To request an interview for a news story, call AU Communications at 202-885-5950 or submit a request.
Teaching
Fall 2024
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HNRS-050 Honors Supplement: Borders/Migrants/Refugees 21C
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SISU-206 Intro to Int'l Studies Rsrch
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SISU-360 Topics in Iden/Race/Gend/Cultr: Borders/Migrants/Refugees 21C
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SISU-394 Comm Service Learning Project: Borders/Migrants/Refugees 21C
AU Experts
Area of Expertise
Latin American security, U.S.-Latin America relations, Central America, Mexico, Immigration, asylum, prisons, gangs, illicit drugs, crime and insecurity, transnational gangs
Additional Information
Anthony W. Fontes is assistant professor in the School of International Service. His first book, Mortal Doubt: Transnational Gangs and Social Order in Guatemala City, explores the evolution of transnational gangs like the Mara Salvatrucha (MS13) from the Cold War into the present. Based on years of ethnographic fieldwork inside Central American prisons, police precincts, and urban neighborhoods, Mortal Doubt delves into the meaning of life and death in the shadow of extreme violence. In addition, he has conducted extensive on-the-ground research along international drug trafficking corridors and immigration routes in Central America and Mexico. His work on prisons, immigration, gangs, and drug-trafficking has appeared in numerous peer-reviewed journals and edited volumes. He has also published artciles in The Guardian and The New York Times.
For the Media
To request an interview for a news story, call AU Communications at 202-885-5950 or submit a request.