Dr. Maura Toro-Morn

Research Interests & Areas

As a scholar in the fields of immigration and sociology, she has always been curious about why people move, how, and what are the consequences of their movements thus she has devoted a significant part of her career to studying migrations in a global perspective. She began to address the complexities of migration while researching the social class and gender dimensions of Puerto Rican migration to Chicago. She is part of a generation of scholars that has taken on that task of exploring the gender specific qualities of contemporary migrations, work that has contributed to the historicizing Latino immigration to the Midwest and to making the experiences of women immigrants across diverse geographies visible. Her work is also relevant because it contributes to analyzing how gender and race systems of inequality intersect in the recruitment and deployment of Latina women workers. Through both her research and teaching, she is devoted to investigating, teaching, and working toward equality for people on issues of ethnicity, race, gender, and social class. This commitment was recognized in 1998 when Toro-Morn was awarded the David Strand Diversity Award.