Mexico-U.S. relations, organized crime, immigration, border security, social movements, and human trafficking
Guadalupe Correa-Cabrera is Professor at the Schar School of Policy and Government, George Mason University. Her areas of expertise are immigration/migration studies, US-Mexico relations, border studies and international security. Within the area of migration studies, she is particularly interested in the phenomena of human smuggling and trafficking of migrants. She is a very well-known scholar in these areas and has published extensively about U.S. bound migration, U.S. immigration and security policy, illicit markets and networks. Guadalupe was recently Principal Investigator of a research grant to study organized crime and trafficking in persons in Central America and along Mexico’s eastern migration routes, supported by the Department of State’s Office to Monitor and Combat Trafficking in Persons.
Professor Correa-Cabrera is author of Los Zetas Inc.: Criminal Corporations, Energy, and Civil War in Mexico (University of Texas Press, 2017; Spanish version: Planeta, 2018). She is co-editor (with Victor Konrad) of the volume titled North American Borders in Comparative Perspective (University of Arizona Press, 2020). Her two most recent books in Spanish (co-authored with Dr. Tony Payan) are Las Cinco Vidas de Genaro García Luna (The Five Lives of Genaro García Luna; El Colegio de México, 2021) and La Guerra Improvisada: Los Años de Calderón y sus Consecuencias (The Improvised War: Calderón’s Years and Consequences; Océano, 2021). Her newest book (coming out this Winter) is entitled Frontera: A Journey across the U.S.-Mexico Border (Texas Christian University Press, 2023; co-authored with Sergio Chapa)
Guadalupe is Past President of the Association for Borderlands Studies (ABS). She is co-editor of the International Studies Perspectives journal (ISP, Oxford University Press).
Research Projects
“Corruption, Gentrification and Environmental Damage at the Border in the Era of Elon Musk: The Case of Cameron County, Texas” (research project with Professor Michelle Keck); Schar School of Policy and Government, George Mason University and University of Texas Rio Grande Valley; October 2022-December 2023.
Collaborator in the 21st Century Borders SSHRC Partnership Grant; Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada; April 1, 2021-March 30, 2028.
Participant in the project titled “Political Parties and the Future of Democracy in Mexico” (organized by the Baker Institute’s Center for the United States and Mexico, Rice University); May 2020-December 2021.
Research project (with Ricardo Raphael): “What is the National Regeneration Movement: MORENA?”
“Explaining the Causes of U.S.-Bound Migration in an Era of Migrant Caravans”; Schar School of Policy and Government, George Mason University; Fall 2019 to date.
“Network Analysis and Opportunities for Disruption of Organ Trafficking”; NSF EAGER grant - Disrupting Operations of Illicit Supply Networks; with Naoru Koizumi (PI), Monica Gentili, Amit Patel and Monir Moniruzzaman; George Mason University, University of Louisville, University of Massachusetts and Michigan State University; November 2018-February 2023.
Books/Works in Progress
Coyotes LLC: The Industry of Human Smuggling and its Transnational Crime Networks [in contract with Columbia University Press; to be completed Summer 2025].
Los Zetas Inc. – A New Generation: Organized Crime and Energy in Mexico [Second edition of Los Zetas Inc.; University of Texas Press; to be completed August 2025].
Frontera: A Journey across the U.S.-Mexico Border (co-authored with Sergio Chapa) [forthcoming December 2023; Texas Christian University Press].
Las Cinco Vidas de Genaro García Luna (The Five Lives of Genaro García Luna; El Colegio de México, 2021)
La Guerra Improvisada: Los Años de Calderón y sus Consecuencias (The Improvised War: Calderón’s Years and Consequences; Océano, 2021).
Los Zetas Inc.: Criminal Corporation, Energy and Civil War in Mexico. Austin: University of Texas Press (2017).
Democracy in “Two Mexicos”: Political Institutions in Oaxaca and Nuevo León. New York: Palgrave Macmillan (2013).
GRANTS
Principal Investigator / Co-Principal Investigator
Co-Principal Investigator
EAGER - Disrupting Operations of Illicit Supply Networks
National Science Foundation (NSF)
Project: “Network Analysis and Opportunities for Disruption of Organ Trafficking”
$291,510.00 (24 months, starting November 1, 2018; extended until February 28, 2023)
Principal Investigator: FY 2014 International Programs to Combat Trafficking in Persons Grant
Office to Monitor and Combat Trafficking in Persons, U.S. Department of State
Project: “Trafficking in Persons along Mexico’s Eastern Migration Routes: The Role of Mexican Transnational Criminal Organizations”
$200,000.00 (18 months, starting April 2015)
Collaborator / researcher
Collaborator: 21st Century Borders SSHRC Partnership Grant
Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada
Project: “Twenty-First Century Borders: Emergent Challenges Within and Among States”
$5.4 million (April 1, 2021-March 30, 2028)
FELLOWSHIPS, AFFILIATIONS AND SCHOLARSHIPS
Fellow, Small Wars Journal - El Centro (2021-to date)
Affiliated faculty, Observatory of the Binational Relationship between Mexico-United States (Observatorio de la Relación Binacional México-Estados Unidos), National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM) (2021 to date)
Non-resident Scholar, Center for the United States and Mexico, James A. Baker III Institute for Public Policy, Rice University (October 1, 2017-December 31, 2021)
Expert in the areas of Mexico-U.S. relations, organized crime, immigration, border security and human trafficking
Woodrow Wilson Center Global Fellow (August 1, 2017-December 31, 2021), Latin American Program
Short-term visiting fellow, Baker Institute’s Center for the United States and Mexico, Rice University (May 21 - June 8, 2018), Project: “The Improvised War: Calderón’s Years and Consequences” (with Dr. Tony Payan)
Woodrow Wilson Center Residential Fellowship (September 2016-July 2017), Project: “Trafficking in Persons, Irregular Immigration and Transnational Organized Crime in Central America and Mexico”
Research fellow at the Freie Universität Berlin - Desigualdades.net project (June–August 2013)
Drugs, Security and Democracy (DSD) Post-doctoral Fellowship (August 2011-July 2012)
Fulbright-García Robles Fellowship for Graduate Studies (Sep 2000-May 2002)
Consejo Nacional de Ciencia y Tecnología (CONACYT) Scholarship (Fall 2000–August 2006)
New School for Social Research Dissertation Fellowship (2003-2004)
New School for Social Research Graduate Teaching Fellowship (2003-2004)
New School for Social Research Tuition Scholarship (Fall 2000 - Fall 2003)
Janey Program for Latin American Studies Summer Grant (Summer 2004)
2002 Transregional Center for Democratic Studies (TCDS) New Social Science Training Fellowship (September-December 2002)
Introduction to Comparative Politics
Latin American Politics
American Hispanic Politics
American Government and Policy
Global Borders in Comparative Perspective
Seminar in International and Development Policy and Management (Graduate)
International and Comparative Public Policy and Management (Graduate)
United States-Mexico, Central America and Caribbean Relations (Graduate)
Public Policies in the Mexico-U.S. Border Region (Graduate)
U.S.-Mexico Border Policy (Graduate)
1. New School for Social Research/The New School; New York, NY
Political Science Department
Ph.D. in Political Science; January 2010.
Major Field: Comparative Politics (passed Field Exam with Honors)
Minor Field: American Politics
Ph.D. Dissertation Title:
DEMOCRACY IN "TWO MEXICOS": Political Exclusion, Economic Exclusion, and (Un)civil Modes of Political Action in Oaxaca and Nuevo León
2. New School for Social Research/The New School; New York, NY
Political Science Department
M.Phil. in Political Science; January 2005.
M.A. in Political Science; May 2002.
Area of Specialization: Comparative Politics
3. Universidad Iberoamericana (UIA); Mexico City
Department of Economics
B.A. in Economics (Licenciatura en Economía); December 1997.
Area of Specialization: Macroeconomics (Field of interest: International Economics)
B.A. Thesis: “Desarrollo Financiero y Crecimiento Económico: Teoría y Evidencia Empírica para Países en Desarrollo” (Financial Development and Economic Growth: Theory and Empirical Evidence for Developing Countries)
Degree with honors: Honorific Mention (Mención Honorífica)
Quoted and cited frequently in national and international news media on the topics of Mexican politics, U.S-Mexico relations, U.S.-Mexico border relations, and particularly on drug trafficking issues and drug violence in Mexico. Among these media sources are: The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal, Los Angeles Times, Chicago Tribune, USA Today, El País, NPR, BBC World News, and C-SPAN Washington Journal.
Op. eds. and articles on current political and public policy issues in: Univision, Newsweek (in Spanish), Houston Chronicle (the Baker Institute Viewpoints series); Latin America Advisor (Inter-American Dialogue); the Association for Borderlands Studies newsletter La Frontera; Borderzine (University of Texas at El Paso), among others.