Michael Lechuga

Dr. Michael Lechuga is an Associate Professor and Interim Co-Chair of the Department of Communication at The University of New Mexico. He holds a Ph.D. in Communication Studies from the University of Denver (2016) and an M.A. in Communication Studies from the University of Texas at El Paso (2007). His research focuses on Latina/o/x Studies, migration, settler colonialism, affect studies, and film studies. He explores how migration control structures and white nationalist ideologies impact migrant communities, with a current emphasis on technology in border security and the governance of alienhood. His book project Alien Affects examines intersections between Hollywood alien invasion films and México/U.S. border security industries.

Lechuga’s scholarship bridges communication theory with decolonial frameworks, interrogating how land, borders, and citizenship are rhetorically constructed. His recent work includes critical analyses of decolonization in academia, pedagogical reconnections to land, and the role of land in social movements. He has published widely on migration rhetoric, cinematic citizenship, and the politics of affect in settler colonial contexts.

He advises graduate students in the Communication Ph.D. program and contributes to the university’s research groups on communication and journalism. His teaching and research emphasize interdisciplinary approaches to communication studies, particularly in Latinx futurism and surveillance studies.