Margaret Salazar-Porzio

Margaret Salazar-Porzio

Curator
Division of Home and Community Life

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

Margaret Salazar-Porzio is a 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. 

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 Many Voices One Nation exhibition that will open in 2017.

  • Many Voices, One Nation
  • Latinos and Baseball: In the Barrios and the Big Leagues
  • 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