Margaret Salazar-Porzio

Curator
Division of Home and Community Life

Margaret Salazar-Porzio is a new Curator in the Division of Home and Community Life with interests and expertise in 20th century visual and material culture of the Western United States, Pacific Rim, and Mexico; Race, Citizenship and National Identity in U.S. urban history; U.S. Latina/o History and Culture; Cultural Studies and 20th Century Cultural History in the U.S.; and K-20 Education. 

B.A., California State University of Los Angeles, Liberal Studies

M.A., University of Southern California, American Studies and Ethnicity

Ph.D., University of Southern California, American Studies and Ethnicity

Research Specialties: 

Specific fields:

  • U.S. Chicana/o and Latina/o History
  • Immigration and transnational history of the U.S.-Mexico Border Region and the Pacific Rim
  • Asian American Studies
  • Comparative Race Relations in the 20th-Century U.S.
  • Media Studies with an emphasis on Television, Photography, and New Media
  • Visual and Material Culture of Latinas/os in the U.S.
  • Civil Rights and Human Rights Law
  • Women’s and Gender Studies.
Projects: 

Dr. Salazar-Porzio will be working with colleagues to document Latino(a) history and culture, and serve as co-curator of the Our American Journey: Many Voices One Nation exhibition that will open in 2016.

  • Our American Journey: Many Voices, One Nation
  • Expanding Latina/o Collections
  • Latino DC History Project
  • The Worlds We Make
Awards, Honors, and Special Recognition: 

Before joining the SI National Museum of American History, Salazar-Porzio served as an Associate Research Scholar at the Center for Institutional and Social Change at Columbia University Law School (2011-2013), and held a Smithsonian Institution Latina/o Studies Postdoctoral Fellowship (2010-2011).  In addition to receiving research fellowships from the Guggenheim (2006), Rockefeller (2003-2004), and National Science Foundations (2004), Salazar-Porzio was also a primary education teacher in Los Angeles, California, where she received a local Teacher of the Year award (2004).  

Professional Affiliations: 
  • American Studies Association
  • American Historical Association
  • Association of Asian American Studies
  • Campus Compact for Faculty Diversity in the Social, Behavioral & Economic Sciences
  • Cultural Studies Association
  • Imagining America: Artists and Scholars in Public Life
  • National Association for Chicana and Chicano Studies
  • National Association for Ethnic Studies
  • Organization of American Historians
  • Urban History Association