Heide Castañeda

Heide Castañeda is Professor and Associate Chair in the Department of Anthropology at the University of South Florida, specializing in critical border studies, legal anthropology, medical anthropology, migration, and migrant health with regional expertise spanning the US/Mexico border, Mexico, Germany, and Morocco.

Her educational background includes a Ph.D. in Anthropology from the University of Arizona, an MPH in Public Health from the University of Texas, and an MA in Anthropology from the University of Texas at San Antonio.

Dr. Castañeda's research investigates how legal status precarity, border enforcement, and racialization impact migrant health and citizenship. She examines mixed-status families, indigenous migration (particularly Amazigh communities), and social determinants of health in border regions through ethnographic fieldwork. Her work consistently highlights structural violence and resilience in migrant communities.

Analysis of her recent publications reveals a strong focus on health equity within migration contexts, with emerging trends examining ethnoracial ambiguity, pandemic impacts on immigrant populations, and temporal dimensions of health suffering. Her scholarship bridges medical anthropology with critical migration studies to challenge policy frameworks.

Dr. Castañeda has secured major funding from the National Science Foundation (Awards #2149059, #1535664, #1729396) and Wenner-Gren Foundation. She mentors graduate students Rachel Kingsley, Amanda Leppert Gomes, Laura Parada Perla, Mahir Rahman, and Augusta Herman. Current projects include 'Migrant Communities in Morocco', 'Mixed-Status Families along the US/Mexico Border', and 'Well-Being of Undocumented Youth in Florida'.

She leads collaborative research teams investigating border health dynamics, working with scholars including Tara Deubel, Elizabeth Aranda, and Elizabeth Vaquera to develop frameworks like the 'mixed-status community' analytic for understanding migration-health intersections.