Rachel V. González-Martin

Dr. Rachel V. González-Martin is an Associate Professor of Mexican American and Latina/o Studies at the University of Texas, College of Liberal Arts. She serves as Undergraduate Advisor and Associate Director for Intersectional Humanities at The Humanities Institute. Her affiliations include the Center for Mexican American Studies, Women and Gender Studies, and the Latino Media and Arts Program.

• PhD in Folklore and Ethnomusicology from Indiana University (2014)
• Dissertation: "Dreaming in Taffeta: Imagining an American Quinceañera"
• MA focused on Mexican American masculinities and verbal dueling traditions

Her research examines cultural practice and class formation in US Latinx communities, with particular emphasis on women, youth, and queer-identifying communities. She analyzes verbal and material traditions through lenses of gender, sexual identities, race, and socioeconomic status, focusing on self-documentation practices and disciplinary futures in folkloristics.

As an award-winning scholar, she received the 2020 Emily Toth Best Book Award for Quinceañera Style: Social Belonging and Latinx Consumer Identities and the Woodrow Wilson Early Career Fellowship. She contributes editorially to Western Folklore, Journal of American Folklore, and Oxford Bibliographies of Latino Studies.

Dr. González-Martin teaches courses on Latino expressive culture, engaged ethnographic fieldwork, and Critical Latino Folkloristics. Her current fieldwork projects explore:

• "Bury me in my Hoops and Uñas": Social Entrepreneurship in WOC-owned Nail Salons
• "I'm Here for the Chisme": Stories from Latina Military Spouses

She has taught diverse courses including Latinx Legend Tripping, Marketing Latinidad, Latina/O Spirituality, and Interpretive Methods across multiple departments (MAS, WGS, AMS, E).