Leah Schmalzbauer
Biographic Data
| ID | 126357 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Leah Schmalzbauer |
| GIVEN NAMES | Leah |
| FAMILY NAME | Schmalzbauer |
| SIGNATURE | SCHMALZBAUER L |
| AFFILIATIONS | Montana State University |
| VERIFIED | No |
| TOTAL WORKS | 23 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 522 |
| WORKS AS AUTHOR | 23 |
| WORKS AS EDITOR | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2004 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 12 |
Reunited
Pathways to Mobility
Kugel and Frijoles
Politics of Precarity
Illegality, motherhood, and place
Placing Assimilation Theory
Assimilation theory typically conceptualizes native whites in metropolitan areas as the mainstream reference group to which immigrants' adaptation is compared. Yet the majority of the U.S. population will soon be made up of ethnoracial minorities. The rise of new immigrant destinations has contributed to this demographic change in rural areas, in addition to already-diverse cities. In this article, we argue that assimilation is experienced in ref…
Education is everything. It determines your future”
Interchanges
Temporary and transnational
In this article I use the US H2A guest worker programme as a lens through which to analyse the gender subjectivities of Mexican transnational fathers. My qualitative findings highlight the ways in which the prioritization of productive over reproductive labour within the H2A programme exploits gender-based expectations within Mexican families, reproducing rigid gender divisions of family labour. Additionally, the subjectivities of guest worker fa…
The Last Best Place?
Southwest Montana is beautiful country, evoking mythologies of freedom and escape long associated with the West. Partly because of its burgeoning presence in popular culture, film, and literature, including William Kittredge's anthology The Last Best Place , the scarcely populated region has witnessed an influx of wealthy, white migrants over the last few decades. But another, largely invisible and unstudied type of migration is also present. Tho…
The Last Best Place
Striving and Surviving
Drawing on data the author gathered in Honduras and the United States from weekly time diaries, in-depth interviews, participant observation and interpretive focus groups, she looks specifically at the experience and prospects of transmigrant labor in the United States; the aspirations and consumption practices of transnational family members in the United States and Honduras, especially as the relate to the American Dream; and she explores the w…
The Relational Contexts of Migration
This article assesses Mexican immigrant women's experiences of isolation and autonomy in three new destination sites in Montana, Ohio, and New Jersey. We highlight six case studies from our cross‐comparative data set of in‐depth interviews and field work with 98 women to illustrate the intersections between contexts of reception and gender relations in shaping women's settlement experiences. We find that women in sites with a concentrated Mexican…
Community-based participatory research with Mexican migrants in a new rural destination
In this article, we offer our reflections on our community-based participatory research (CBPR) project in partnership with Mexican migrants in a new rural destination of the Rocky Mountain West. To set the stage for our work, we first present the Montana migration context – a unique context in which the migrant community is hard to define, locate, and engage. Next, we present who we are and how we forged a partnership with Mexican migrants in Mon…
Central Themes in the Study of Transnational Parenthood
This article reviews the emerging literature on transnational parenthood, concentrating on six themes: gender, care arrangements, legislation, class, communication and moralities. Gender concerns not only the distinction between transnational motherhood and transnational fatherhood, but also the role of children's gender and the broader networks of gender relations within which transnational parenthood is practised. Care arrangements are often th…
Doing Gender,' Ensuring Survival
This article draws on ethnographic research to explore the impacts of the current economic crisis on Mexican migrant families in rural Montana. It looks specifically at the ways rural families negotiate gender roles and expectations as they devise survival strategies in response to major economic shifts. My analysis suggests that traditional gender roles are being transgressed, as migrant women enter wage labor, often for the first time. Simultan…
Gender on a New Frontier
In this article, the author draws from ethnographic field work with Mexican migrants in southwestern Montana, an emerging rural settlement of the Mountain West, to analyze the ways in which context of reception affects gender relations. The author constructs the analysis by looking at gender in terms of three primary elements of migrant incorporation: (1) employment, (2) geography, and (3) culture. The author finds that in Montana traditional gen…
Family divided
Although there is a growing literature on transnational families, we know little about the class formation of such families and even less about how transnational migration and generation interact in this process. In this article I draw from ethnographic research with Honduran immigrant parents in the USA and transnational youths in Honduras to theorize the class formation of transnational families. Based on Bryceson and Vuorela's concepts of fron…
Piloting the Time Diary Method Among Honduran Immigrants
Researching Inequality Through Interpretive Collaborations
Researchers committed to feminist participatory research must grapple with power and vulnerability-both those of other people as well as their own. In this article, the authors argue that in the current context of sharp economic disparity, political polarization, and global conflict, researchers must undertake collaborative and even risk-taking social inquiry in order to learn about alternative lives. The authors highlight the importance of using…
Striving and Surviving
Poor Mothers and Habits of Hiding
Poor mothers have long-standing habits of hiding their lives in response to punitive authorities and stigma. We identify practices of hiding daily life, and we describe participatory research approaches for and ethical concerns in learning more about poor women's critical insights and survival strategies
Searching for wages and mothering from Afar
This article draws on data from a 2-year two-country study that included 157 people to explore the survival strategies of poor Honduran transnational families. I argue that transnational families, defined as those divided between two nation-states who have maintained close ties, depend on a cross-border division of labor in which productive labor occurs in the host country and reproductive labor in the home country. This article bridges the liter…
Searching for wages and mothering from Afar
This article draws on data from a 2-year two-country study that included 157 people to explore the survival strategies of poor Honduran transnational families. I argue that transnational families, defined as those divided between two nation-states who have maintained close ties, depend on a cross-border division of labor in which productive labor occurs in the host country and reproductive labor in the home country. This article bridges the liter…
Central Themes in the Study of Transnational Parenthood
This article reviews the emerging literature on transnational parenthood, concentrating on six themes: gender, care arrangements, legislation, class, communication and moralities. Gender concerns not only the distinction between transnational motherhood and transnational fatherhood, but also the role of children's gender and the broader networks of gender relations within which transnational parenthood is practised. Care arrangements are often th…
Family divided
Although there is a growing literature on transnational families, we know little about the class formation of such families and even less about how transnational migration and generation interact in this process. In this article I draw from ethnographic research with Honduran immigrant parents in the USA and transnational youths in Honduras to theorize the class formation of transnational families. Based on Bryceson and Vuorela's concepts of fron…
Illegality, motherhood, and place
The Relational Contexts of Migration
This article assesses Mexican immigrant women's experiences of isolation and autonomy in three new destination sites in Montana, Ohio, and New Jersey. We highlight six case studies from our cross‐comparative data set of in‐depth interviews and field work with 98 women to illustrate the intersections between contexts of reception and gender relations in shaping women's settlement experiences. We find that women in sites with a concentrated Mexican…
Researching Inequality Through Interpretive Collaborations
Researchers committed to feminist participatory research must grapple with power and vulnerability-both those of other people as well as their own. In this article, the authors argue that in the current context of sharp economic disparity, political polarization, and global conflict, researchers must undertake collaborative and even risk-taking social inquiry in order to learn about alternative lives. The authors highlight the importance of using…
Poor Mothers and Habits of Hiding
Poor mothers have long-standing habits of hiding their lives in response to punitive authorities and stigma. We identify practices of hiding daily life, and we describe participatory research approaches for and ethical concerns in learning more about poor women's critical insights and survival strategies
Temporary and transnational
In this article I use the US H2A guest worker programme as a lens through which to analyse the gender subjectivities of Mexican transnational fathers. My qualitative findings highlight the ways in which the prioritization of productive over reproductive labour within the H2A programme exploits gender-based expectations within Mexican families, reproducing rigid gender divisions of family labour. Additionally, the subjectivities of guest worker fa…
Community-based participatory research with Mexican migrants in a new rural destination
In this article, we offer our reflections on our community-based participatory research (CBPR) project in partnership with Mexican migrants in a new rural destination of the Rocky Mountain West. To set the stage for our work, we first present the Montana migration context – a unique context in which the migrant community is hard to define, locate, and engage. Next, we present who we are and how we forged a partnership with Mexican migrants in Mon…
Doing Gender,' Ensuring Survival
This article draws on ethnographic research to explore the impacts of the current economic crisis on Mexican migrant families in rural Montana. It looks specifically at the ways rural families negotiate gender roles and expectations as they devise survival strategies in response to major economic shifts. My analysis suggests that traditional gender roles are being transgressed, as migrant women enter wage labor, often for the first time. Simultan…
Gender on a New Frontier
In this article, the author draws from ethnographic field work with Mexican migrants in southwestern Montana, an emerging rural settlement of the Mountain West, to analyze the ways in which context of reception affects gender relations. The author constructs the analysis by looking at gender in terms of three primary elements of migrant incorporation: (1) employment, (2) geography, and (3) culture. The author finds that in Montana traditional gen…
Placing Assimilation Theory
Assimilation theory typically conceptualizes native whites in metropolitan areas as the mainstream reference group to which immigrants' adaptation is compared. Yet the majority of the U.S. population will soon be made up of ethnoracial minorities. The rise of new immigrant destinations has contributed to this demographic change in rural areas, in addition to already-diverse cities. In this article, we argue that assimilation is experienced in ref…
Pathways to Mobility
Politics of Precarity
Education is everything. It determines your future”
Searching for wages and mothering from Afar
This article draws on data from a 2-year two-country study that included 157 people to explore the survival strategies of poor Honduran transnational families. I argue that transnational families, defined as those divided between two nation-states who have maintained close ties, depend on a cross-border division of labor in which productive labor occurs in the host country and reproductive labor in the home country. This article bridges the liter…
Striving and Surviving
Poor Mothers and Habits of Hiding
Poor mothers have long-standing habits of hiding their lives in response to punitive authorities and stigma. We identify practices of hiding daily life, and we describe participatory research approaches for and ethical concerns in learning more about poor women's critical insights and survival strategies
Piloting the Time Diary Method Among Honduran Immigrants
Researching Inequality Through Interpretive Collaborations
Researchers committed to feminist participatory research must grapple with power and vulnerability-both those of other people as well as their own. In this article, the authors argue that in the current context of sharp economic disparity, political polarization, and global conflict, researchers must undertake collaborative and even risk-taking social inquiry in order to learn about alternative lives. The authors highlight the importance of using…
Family divided
Although there is a growing literature on transnational families, we know little about the class formation of such families and even less about how transnational migration and generation interact in this process. In this article I draw from ethnographic research with Honduran immigrant parents in the USA and transnational youths in Honduras to theorize the class formation of transnational families. Based on Bryceson and Vuorela's concepts of fron…
Gender on a New Frontier
In this article, the author draws from ethnographic field work with Mexican migrants in southwestern Montana, an emerging rural settlement of the Mountain West, to analyze the ways in which context of reception affects gender relations. The author constructs the analysis by looking at gender in terms of three primary elements of migrant incorporation: (1) employment, (2) geography, and (3) culture. The author finds that in Montana traditional gen…
Doing Gender,' Ensuring Survival
This article draws on ethnographic research to explore the impacts of the current economic crisis on Mexican migrant families in rural Montana. It looks specifically at the ways rural families negotiate gender roles and expectations as they devise survival strategies in response to major economic shifts. My analysis suggests that traditional gender roles are being transgressed, as migrant women enter wage labor, often for the first time. Simultan…
Community-based participatory research with Mexican migrants in a new rural destination
In this article, we offer our reflections on our community-based participatory research (CBPR) project in partnership with Mexican migrants in a new rural destination of the Rocky Mountain West. To set the stage for our work, we first present the Montana migration context – a unique context in which the migrant community is hard to define, locate, and engage. Next, we present who we are and how we forged a partnership with Mexican migrants in Mon…
Central Themes in the Study of Transnational Parenthood
This article reviews the emerging literature on transnational parenthood, concentrating on six themes: gender, care arrangements, legislation, class, communication and moralities. Gender concerns not only the distinction between transnational motherhood and transnational fatherhood, but also the role of children's gender and the broader networks of gender relations within which transnational parenthood is practised. Care arrangements are often th…
Striving and Surviving
Drawing on data the author gathered in Honduras and the United States from weekly time diaries, in-depth interviews, participant observation and interpretive focus groups, she looks specifically at the experience and prospects of transmigrant labor in the United States; the aspirations and consumption practices of transnational family members in the United States and Honduras, especially as the relate to the American Dream; and she explores the w…
The Relational Contexts of Migration
This article assesses Mexican immigrant women's experiences of isolation and autonomy in three new destination sites in Montana, Ohio, and New Jersey. We highlight six case studies from our cross‐comparative data set of in‐depth interviews and field work with 98 women to illustrate the intersections between contexts of reception and gender relations in shaping women's settlement experiences. We find that women in sites with a concentrated Mexican…
The Last Best Place?
Southwest Montana is beautiful country, evoking mythologies of freedom and escape long associated with the West. Partly because of its burgeoning presence in popular culture, film, and literature, including William Kittredge's anthology The Last Best Place , the scarcely populated region has witnessed an influx of wealthy, white migrants over the last few decades. But another, largely invisible and unstudied type of migration is also present. Tho…
The Last Best Place
Temporary and transnational
In this article I use the US H2A guest worker programme as a lens through which to analyse the gender subjectivities of Mexican transnational fathers. My qualitative findings highlight the ways in which the prioritization of productive over reproductive labour within the H2A programme exploits gender-based expectations within Mexican families, reproducing rigid gender divisions of family labour. Additionally, the subjectivities of guest worker fa…
Education is everything. It determines your future”
Interchanges
Illegality, motherhood, and place
Placing Assimilation Theory
Assimilation theory typically conceptualizes native whites in metropolitan areas as the mainstream reference group to which immigrants' adaptation is compared. Yet the majority of the U.S. population will soon be made up of ethnoracial minorities. The rise of new immigrant destinations has contributed to this demographic change in rural areas, in addition to already-diverse cities. In this article, we argue that assimilation is experienced in ref…
Politics of Precarity
Kugel and Frijoles
Pathways to Mobility
Reunited
Sociology (18 works) · Political science (16 works) · Migration and Labor Dynamics (14 works) · Gender Studies (11 works) · Migration, Ethnicity, and Economy (9 works) · Gender Studies (7 works) · Geography (7 works) · Law (7 works) · Psychology (7 works) · Economic growth (6 works)