Professor in Gender Studies and History, Porter teaches Mexican, Latin American, and community-engaged history. Porter’s research explores the ways work and class identities shape individual experiences and societal change. In research on telephone operators, secretaries, factory workers, and street vendors, Porter shows that at the heart of the Mexican labor movement there was also a movement for women’s social, cultural, and civil rights. These women, many of them working mothers, developed a critique of gender inequality and sexual exploitation both within and outside of the workplace.
Porter is a founder of the Spanish-language Westside Leadership Institute and serves as a country conditions expert in asylum cases. She is series editor for Confluencias, University of Nebraska Press. Porter served as Chair of Gender Studies (2020-2020) and Director of the Center for Latin American Studies (2021-2023).

Education

B.A., Latin American Studies, University of California, Berkeley

Ph.D. History, University of California, San Diego

Research Focus

Mexico. Women’s history; labor history; middle class; class relations; biography.

Awards

2023  Residency, Chair, Organisation Internationale du Travail, L'Institut d'Études Avancées

2022-23  Residency, "François Chevalier," Madrid Institute for Advanced Studies, Madrid, Spain

2022  Distinción, Secretaria de Relaciones Exteriores de México; Jefatura de Unidad para America del Norte

2022  Presidential Societal Impact Scholar, University of Utah

2022  Transform Research Award, College for Cultural and Social Transformation, University of Utah

2019  Distinguished Scholar, College of Humanities, University of Utah

2019  Best Book in Latin American Studies, McGann Prize, Rocky Mountain Latin American Studies Association

2004  "Outstanding Book" Award, Latin American Studies Association, Labor and Class Relations Studies Section