Lydia Huerta Moreno, Ph.D.

Chair, Department of Sociology and Cultural Analysis; Associate Professor
Lydia Huerta
she / ella / they / elle

Summary

Lydia Huerta Moreno is an associate professor and Chair of the Department of Sociology and Cultural Analysis at the University of Nevada, Reno, where her scholarship sits at the intersection of transnational feminisms, queer and trans studies, social movements and media studies. She holds a Ph.D. in Iberian and Latin American Languages and Cultures from the University of Texas at Austin. Her book, Mourning and Mobilization in the Americas: The Affective Politics of Women Killings (SUNY Press, 2026), offers a groundbreaking transnational and trans-inclusive feminist analysis of how communities across the Americas transform grief over murdered and missing women, girls and two-spirit people into powerful movements for justice, and co-editor of Introduction to Latinx Social Sciences and Cultural Studies (Cognella, 2022). A committed scholar-activist, Huerta Moreno has organized alongside Indigenous, trans, and Latinx communities, co-founded the Center for Gender Equity and Social Justice at Western New Mexico University, and received support from the American Council of Learned Societies for her community-based research.

Huerta Moreno currently co-leads Beyond Borders, Between Bodies: The New Geography of Reproductive Rights in the Americas (with Prisca Gayles, Ph.D.), a multi-year research initiative examining reproductive autonomy across the hemisphere post-Dobbs, funded by the Ozmen Institute for Global Studies, the University's Research & Innovation, and the College of Liberal Arts (CLA) and Reynolds School of Journalism Dimensions Grant. Her work bridges cultural studies, reproductive justice and social movement theory, and has taken her to universities and forums across Brazil, Mexico and Puerto Rico as an invited and keynote speaker.

She is a frequent public commentator on gender and politics in Latin America, with appearances on KUNR, News 4/Fox 11 and KTVN, and has testified/spoken on missing and murdered Indigenous women, reproductive rights and transnational feminist movements.

Research interests

  • Feminicide, gendered violence and transnational feminist resistance
  • Reproductive justice across the Americas (post-Dobbs comparative work)
  • Latinx/Chicanx and Latin American cultural studies
  • Queer/trans studies and transfeminicide 
  • Social movements and mobilization
  • Migration and border studies
  • Media, narrative and public memory

Courses taught

  • CH 203: American Experiences and Constitutional Change
  • WMST 250: Introduction to Feminist Theory
  • WMST 300: Culture and Gender
  • GRI 257: Social Movements of Gender, Race, and Identity
  • GRI 272: Latinx Identities and Cultures
  • SOC/WMST 453: Gender & Society
  • SOC/WMST 409/609: Sociology of Gender Violence
  • GRI 460: Intersectionality and Social Justice
  • GRI 710: Global Theories of Feminicide, MMIWG2S, and Transfeminicide
  • GRI 715: Theories of Liberation

Selected publications

Books

  • Huerta Moreno, L. (2026). Mourning and Mobilization: The Affective Politics of Women Killings in the Americas. SUNY University Press.
  • Huerta Moreno, L., & Sanchez Volatier, C. (2022). Introduction to Latinx Social Sciences and Cultural Studies. Cognella Academic Publishing.

Journal articles

Book chapters (forthcoming/in press)

  • Gayles, P., & Huerta Moreno, L. "Speculative Care: Black Feminist Reimaginings of Reproductive Futures." In Reproductive Justice Futurisms, ed. Loretta Ross & Jalicia Jolly.
  • Huerta Moreno, L. "Gender as a Threat: Conspiracism, Extremism, and Hate in Brazil, Chile and Argentina." In The Social Science of Conspiracism, Extremism, and Hate, ed. Monic Miller. Oxford University Press.
  • Huerta Moreno, L. (2022). Alighting on the Digital: Trans Migrant Testimonios. In P. Pain (Ed.), LGBTQ Digital Cultures: A Global Perspective (77-88). Routledge.
  • Huerta Moreno, L. (2022). The Silence of Laughter. In S.J. Blithe & J. Bauer (Eds.) Badass Feminist Politics: An Introduction (145-170). Rutgers University Press.

Active research and funding

  • Beyond Borders, Between Bodies: The New Geography of Reproductive Rights in the Americas (2025–present). Co-PI with Dr. Prisca Gayles. Funded by SCAG, the Ozmen Institute for Global Studies, and the CLA/Reynolds School of Journalism Dimensions Grant (UNR).
  • Transurviority: Lessons from Trans Collectives in Latin America (2025–present).

Languages

  • Spanish (native)
  • English (native)
  • Portuguese (near-native fluency)
  • French (intermediate)

Education

  • Ph.D., Iberian and Latin American Languages and Cultures, University of Texas at Austin, 2012
  • M.A., Hispanic Language and Literature, Boston University, 2006
  • B.A., Hispanic Language and Literature, Boston University, 2005