Ariana Ochoa Camacho

About Ariana

Ariana Ochoa Camacho completed her dissertation work at New York University. Her research project "Racial Longings, Migrant Belongings,” examines the frictions of Latin American and U.S. racial discourses as they propel the embodied performances and experiences of Colombian nationalism in the New York Metro region, particularly in the contexts of cultural festivals and community celebrations. Her work argues that the racial performances of Colombian migrants in New York are part of a creative petition that refuses racial ‘otherization,’ and are shaped through the multiple cultural contexts of migrant lives.

Prof. Ochoa Camacho earned an M.A. in Communication from San Francisco State University and a B.A. in Anthropology from Kenyon College. She has published her work with Demeter Press, Columbia University Press, Emerging Perspectives in Health Communication, Feminist Media Studies, as well as collaborated with a visual artist to produce a video, “Elizabeth’s Story,” now housed at the National Museum of Mexican Art. Her work uses qualitative methodologies particularly from a cultural studies frame to look at marginalization and dynamics of power in contemporary society.

Current Research

Current research project: "Racial Longings, Migrant Belongings: Colombianidad and Racial Performance in New York City"

This project elaborates the internal contours of migrant experiences to push the boundaries of our understanding Latino racializations and challenge contemporary notions of immigrant incorporation by attending to cultural practices. My scholarship responds to the pressing social questions relating to "other" Latino migrations in the U.S. and wrestles with Colombian nationalism through an explicit investigation of its entangled race, gender and sexual norms as they materialize in migration. The interdisciplinary methodologies of gender and sexuality studies and the field's commitment to elucidating how nation/nationalism shapes the lived experiences of marginalization also powerfully shapes my ethnographic study of race, nation and migration.

Future Project: "Toxics, Race and Geography"

Her future project continues to examine investments in difference, culture, embodiment and environmental justice relating to science, society/race, and the body through an exploration on the social construction of chronic diseases. In this project she explores disease as a lived social process of intoxication that is spatialized and embodied, particularly in urban spaces.