Bio

Dr. Hector M. Callejas is an IDEAL Provostial Fellow in the Department of Anthropology at Stanford University. He earned his Ph.D. in Ethnic Studies from the University of California, Berkeley. He is an interdisciplinary scholar of race, Indigeneity, politics, culture, and the environment, with a focus on social movements. His research and teaching cover ethnic studies, sociocultural anthropology, and Latin American studies. He uses ethnography, discourse analysis, and critical theory to examine how organizations produce and mobilize racial and Indigenous identities to shape the governance of ordinary people and their surroundings. He considers the implications for knowledge production and public policy on social inequalities. He has two research areas: Indigenous cultural identity development and rights advocacy in the western highlands of El Salvador; and environmental justice activism in the Sacramento Valley of California.

Academic Appointments

  • Lecturer, Anthropology

Contact

  • Academic
    hmcallej@stanford.edu
    University - Academic staff Department: Anthropology Position: Lecturer

Additional Info

  • Mail Code: 2145

Links

Current Research and Scholarly Interests

Indigenous cultural development

In 2014, the Legislative Assembly of El Salvador ratified a constitutional reform establishing state recognition of Indigenous peoples as culturally distinctive citizens of the Salvadoran nation. This emerging regime of national multiculturalism centered on the state development of Indigenous cultural identity, with a focus on Indigenous peoples’ spiritual relationship to land, territory, and natural resources. This book project examines how the Salvadoran state constructed Indigenous identity and culture through national Indigenous policymaking during the 2010s. It shows how national and local authorities articulated and used “Indigenous cultural identity” as a relatively new and increasingly important discourse for the social reproduction of mestizo, or mixed race, communities with internal racialized class divisions. It traces diverse forms, practices, and effects of Indigenous cultural identity development between state institutions, Indigenous organizations, and ordinary people in the capital city of San Salvador and the neighboring municipalities of Izalco and Nahuizalco in the western highlands. Hector entered these distinct social worlds through the Red Nacional de Pueblos Indígenas, “El Jaguar Sonriente,” an influential network of Indigenous organizations within the Salvadoran Indigenous movement coordinated by the state institution responsible for national Indigenous policy, the Ministerio de Cultura. He accessed the network through the Consejo de Pueblos Originarios Náhuat Pipil de Nahuizalco, a grassroots Indigenous organization. Hector conducted ethnographic research between January of 2019 and March of 2020, during the transition period between the outgoing FMLN and incoming Bukele administrations. This project contributes to interdisciplinary scholarship on the possibilities and limits for Indigenous movements to decolonize settler states and White supremacist societies under national multicultural governance.

Environmental justice activism

Hector has begun pilot research on environmental justice activism in the Sacramento Valley of California. This emerging field of public policy addresses the unequal distribution of environmental hazards along the lines of income, ethnicity, and race. He entered this field through his parents' participation as faith-based community leaders in the Sacramento Environmental Justice Coalition, a grassroots organization. Hector's family has lived and worked in an "Environmental Justice community" as defined by Sacramento County's Office of Planning & Environmental Review.

2023-24 Courses