Sergio Lemus
  • Assistant Professor
  • Cultural Program Coordinator
  • Distinguished Lecture Series Coordinator
Research Areas
  • Cultural Anthropology

Biography


Courses Taught:

  • ANTH 210: Social and Cultural Anthropology
  • ANTH 489: The Anthropology of the US-Mexico Border
  • ANTH 489: The Anthropology Migration
  • ANTH 489/689: The Anthropology of Contemporary Mexico
  • ANTH 604: Cultural Method and Theory
  • ANTH 650: Ethnographic Field Methods

Current Graduate Students:

Research Interests

Specialty:

  • Ethnography
  • Theories of race
  • Materiality
  • The body
  • Mexican Migration
  • Border Theory
  • Bio/necro/politics, and class

Current Research Projects:

As of Fall 2021, Dr. Lemus is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Anthropology. He obtained his doctoral degree in Anthropology from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in 2015. Dr. Lemus focuses on the transformative impact of labor on Mexican migrant communities. His upcoming book, Los Yarderos: Mexican Yard Workers in Transborder Chicago (2025), explores how Mexican, working-class migrants experience race, class, gender, and color hierarchies and the changing economic landscape by working as gardeners.

Dr. Lemus is also researching the intersection of health and culture among Mexican immigrants, specifically how working-class Latinos navigate and make choices on their health. This study sheds light on the broader socioeconomic and political factors that influence how Latino/a patients are perceived and treated in the U.S.

Overall, Dr. Lemus' research delves into immigration through three key lenses: the experiences of Mexicans across borders, the cultural dynamics within these communities, and the impact of health and disease on class, gender, and shifting political contexts. Dr. Lemus is currently accepting graduate students with similar research interests.

Educational Background

  • PhD, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 2015

Selected Publications

  • Lemus, Sergio. Los Yarderos: Mexican Yard Workers in Transborder Chicago. University of Illinois Press, 2025. 978-0-252-08866-7.

    Clement, Viviane, Sergio Lemus, and Emma Newman. "In search of health: medical tourism at the US-Mexico border/lands." Journal of Tourism and Cultural Change 22, no. 1 (2024): 118-136.

    Lemus, Sergio, Díaz, Vanessa, and Ryan Mann-Hamilton. "Uncertain Future (s): Latinidad, Anthropology, and Institutions." (2022).

    Lemus, Sergio. "Performing Power en Las Yardas (at the Yards): The Body, Capitalist Discipline, and the Making of Mexican Yardero Lives in South Chicago." Anthropology of Work Review 38, no. 2 (2017): 104-112.