Vanessa Fonseca-Chavez
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Phone: 480-727-3881
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7271 E Sonoran Arroyo Mall Mesa, AZ 85212
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Mail code: 2780Campus: Poly
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Vanessa Fonseca-Chávez is an Associate Professor of English and Assistant Vice Provost of the ASU Polytechnic campus. In her role as Assistant Vice Provost, she works on the strategic implementation of ASU's goals at the Poly campus by providing campus-level engagement to advance Poly priorities. She supports enrollment growth, community building, and student success, as well as communicating Poly's contributions to the ASU Charter and fostering relationships with external stakeholders. Prior to this role, Fonseca-Chávez served as the Associate Dean of Inclusion and Student Success for the College of Integrative Sciences and Arts from 2021-2025.
Fonseca-Chávez's is the author of Colonial Legacies in Chicana/o Literature and Culture: Looking through the Kaleidoscope (2020) with the University of Arizona Press. She is the co-editor of four books, including La Plonqui: The Literary Life and Work of Margarita Cota-Cárdenas (2023) and meXicana Roots and Routes: Listening to People, Places, and Pasts (2025). She is the co-author of Hispanics in Concho (2025). She is the co-editor of the BorderVisions book series with the University of Arizona Press, a series which publishes cutting-edge research on borderlands studies.
Fonseca-Chávez's current research focuses on understanding how rural communities in the southwest United States narrate a sense of belonging through economic migrations. She is working on a new book that explores the ways that residents of Concho, Arizona hold the memory of a community that has long been described as a ghost town.
At ASU, Fonseca-Chávez teaches undergraduate courses in English, Interdisciplinary Studies, Liberal Studies, and History. She is an affiliate faculty member of the School of Transborder Studies, the School of International Letters and Cultures and the Department of English at ASU Tempe.
Fonseca-Chávez co-directs the Following the Manito Trail project, which looks at the Hispanic New Mexican, or Manito, diaspora from the mid 19th century to the present. The Following the Manito Trail team has produced three documentaries, five museum exhibits, and has published numerous articles and book chapters.
Vanessa Fonseca-Chávez and Rafael Martínez serve as the founders and inaugural co-directors of the Latinx Oral History Lab at the ASU Polytechnic campus.
- Ph.D. Spanish Cultural Studies, Arizona State University
- M.A. Hispanic Southwest Studies, University of New Mexico
- B.A. Spanish; minor: Business Management, University of New Mexico
Fonseca-Chávez'a research interests include Chicana/o literature, Nuevomexicana/o literature, oral history and storytelling. Her most recent works examine the complex intertanglings of colonial structures in the Southwest United States and how coloniality of power manifests in literature, cultural production, and social spaces. In addition to this work, she is interested in how rural communities narrate their sense of place and belonging.
RECENT BOOKS
Fonseca-Chávez, Vanessa and Anita-Huizar-Hernández, eds. meXicana Roots and Routes: Listening to People, Places, and Pasts. University of Arizona Press, 2025.
Fonseca-Chávez, Vanessa and Angela Perea Murphy. Hispanics in Concho. Arcadia Publishing, 2025.
Rosales, Jesús and Vanessa Fonseca-Chávez, eds. La Plonqui: The Literary Life and Work of Margarita Cota-Cárdenas. University of Arizona Press, 2023.
RECENT PEER REVIEWED ARTICLES
Fonseca-Chávez, Vanessa. ""Si conociera hoy la curiosidad de mi pluma y de mi espíritu": Lázaro Acosta and the Spanish-Language Press in Arizona and New Mexico." Journal of Arizona History 67, no. 3 (2026): 403-431. https://muse.jhu.edu/article/1000431.
Fonseca-Chávez, Vanessa. "Lay Leadership in Rural Hispano Catholic Communities: A Case Study of Concho, Arizona. U.S. Latina & Latino Oral History Journal, vol. 9, 2025, p. 47-82. Project MUSE, https://dx-doi-org.ezproxy1.lib.asu.edu/10.1353/loh.00004.
Fonseca-Chávez, Vanessa and Patricia Perea. “Son Utiles: Learning from Manito Sheep Culture.” Journal of Folklore and Education. Fall 2024. https://jfepublications.org/article/son-utiles/.
RECENT BOOK CHAPTERS
Fonseca-Chávez, Vanessa. "Foreword: Chicanas, Manitas, Llaneras: The Path We Travel." foreword to Los Llaneros: the Mexican Southern Plains, 1500-1900, edited by Joel Zapata, et. al. p. ix-xiii. University of Oklahoma Press, 2026.
Fonseca-Chávez, Vanessa. “We Were Always Chicanos, or, We Did it Our Way: Situated Citizenship in the Equality State.” Latina Histories and Cultures: Feminist Readings and Recoveries of Archival Knowledge edited by Montse Feu and Yolanda Padilla. Houston: Arte Público Press. 2023, p. 283-300.
Martínez, Trisha and Vanessa Fonseca-Chávez. "Finding and Building Community on the Manito Trail." Western Lands, Western Voices: History at Work in the American West, edited by Gregory E. Smoak. 85-100. University of Utah Press, 2021.
CREATIVE AND SCHOLARLY ACTIVITY
Co-Director, Latinx Oral History Lab, 2024-present.
The Latinx Oral History Lab amplifies Latinx voices from the East Valley and beyond, capturing the rich tapestry of experiences that form the core of our community's narrative. The lab is located at the ASU Polytechnic campus.
Following the Manito Trail Co-Director, 2015-present.
Following the Manito Trail is an interdisciplinary project that seeks to document the histories and stories of the Hispanic New Mexican, or Manito, diaspora from the mid 1800's to the present. You can learn more about the Following the Manito Trail project HERE.
Courses
2027 Spring
| Course Number | Course Title |
|---|---|
| ISA 394 | Special Topics |
| ISA 394 | Special Topics |
2026 Summer
| Course Number | Course Title |
|---|---|
| ENG 363 | Transborder Chicano Literature |
| ENG 363 | Transborder Chicano Literature |
2026 Spring
| Course Number | Course Title |
|---|---|
| ENG 498 | Pro-Seminar |
| HST 495 | Methods of Historical Inquiry |
2025 Fall
| Course Number | Course Title |
|---|---|
| IDS 401 | Integration: Experiential |
2025 Spring
| Course Number | Course Title |
|---|---|
| IDS 401 | Integration: Experiential |
2024 Fall
| Course Number | Course Title |
|---|---|
| IDS 314 | Integratv Persp Cultural Dynam |
| IDS 314 | Integratv Persp Cultural Dynam |
2023 Fall
| Course Number | Course Title |
|---|---|
| ENG 363 | Transborder Chicano Literature |
| ENG 499 | Individualized Instruction |
| ENG 493 | Honors Thesis |
2023 Spring
| Course Number | Course Title |
|---|---|
| SOS 498 | Pro-Seminar |
| FIS 494 | Special Topics |
| HUL 494 | Special Topics |
| HUL 598 | Special Topics |
| ENG 494 | Special Topics |
2022 Fall
| Course Number | Course Title |
|---|---|
| ENG 590 | Reading and Conference |
| ENG 597 | Graduate Capstone Seminar |
| ENG 492 | Honors Directed Study |
| ENG 363 | Transborder Chicano Literature |
2022 Spring
| Course Number | Course Title |
|---|---|
| ENG 334 | Am Southwest Literature & Film |
2021 Fall
| Course Number | Course Title |
|---|---|
| ENG 359 | Indigenous American Literature |
| ENG 590 | Reading and Conference |
| ENG 597 | Graduate Capstone Seminar |
| ENG 492 | Honors Directed Study |