Arlene Davila

Arlene Davila is 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. Recent books include El Mall: The Spatial and Class Politics of Shopping Malls in Latin America (University of California Press, 2016) and Culture Works: Space, Value and Mobility Across the Neoliberal Americas (NYU Press, 2012) among other works examining cultural politics across the Americas.