Robin C Reineke
- Assistant Research Social Scientist
- Member of the Graduate Faculty
- Assistant Professor, Anthropology
- (520) 626-0460
- Little Chapel of All Nations, Rm. 112
- Tucson, AZ 85721
- rreineke@arizona.edu
Biography
Robin Reineke, PhD is Assistant Research Social Scientist at the University of Arizona’s Southwest Center and Assistant Professor at the School of Anthropology. She is a sociocultural anthropologist with specializations in transnational migration, science and technology studies, human rights, forensic anthropology, and the anthropology of death. Her research and fieldwork are focused on the US-Mexico border region, especially the Sonoran Desert. Dr. Reineke's research centers on questions relating to forensics, evidence, and care, including: What qualifies as "evidence" and who has the power to create forums where evidence is presented and discussed? How are forensic methodologies employed as a critical social practice outside of state practices of policing? What are the impacts of US border militarization on local communities?
Dr. Reineke's research has investigated the impact of border deaths and disappearances on immigrant communities, the ways in which families of missing migrants have changed the practice of forensic science in the US-Mexico borderlands, and the violence of border deaths and disappearances. From 2006 - 2020, she spent significant time working with the Pima County Office of the Medical Examiner doing ethnographic research and collaborating in the development of various projects and initiatives to address the challenges of unidentified human remains and missing persons in the borderlands. These initiatives included development of the nonprofit, nongovernmental organization, the Colibrí Center for Human Rights, which Reineke co-founded and directed from 2013 - 2019.
Dr. Reineke is currently working on her first book, Grieving Strangers, which is an ethnography about local efforts to care for the dead and their families in the borderlands of Arizona. Together with her research colleague Dr. Natalia Mendoza Rockwell, Dr. Reineke is also currently working on a binational research project called Forensic Citizenship in the Borderlands. This visual, oral history, and ethnographic project is focused on understanding civilian forensic expertise and critical practice on both sides of the Arizona-Sonora border. The project is funded by the University of Arizona Libraries' Digital Borderlands Program and the ConfluenceCenter for Creative Inquiry's Fronteridades Faculty Fellowship.
Dr. Reineke is from Seattle, Washington. She received a BA in anthropology from Bryn Mawr College, and a Master’s and Ph.D. in anthropology from the University of Arizona. Her work has been featured in the BBC, CNN, the New York Times, the Los Angeles Times, The Economist, The Nation, and the documentary film, Who Is Dayani Cristal? She was awarded the Institute for Policy Studies’ Letelier-Moffitt Human Rights Award and Echoing Green’s Global Fellowship in 2014.
Degrees
- Ph.D. Anthropology
- University of Arizona, Tucson, Arizona, United States
- Naming the Dead: Identification and Ambiguity Along the U.S.-Mexico Border
- M.A. Anthropology
- University of Arizona, Tucson, Arizona, United States
- B.A. Anthropology
- Bryn Mawr College, Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania, United States
Work Experience
- School of Anthropology, University of Arizona (2017)
- Colibrí Center for Human Rights (2013 - 2019)
- School of Anthropology, University of Arizona (2013)
- School of Anthropology, University of Arizona (2012)
- Department of Mexican American Studies and Research Center (2010 - 2013)
- School of Geography and Regional Development, University of Arizona (2007 - 2010)
- School of Anthropology, University of Arizona (2007)
- Missing Migrant Project (2006 - 2013)
Awards
- Mellon-Fronteridades Faculty Fellowship
- Confluence Center for Creative Inquiry, Fall 2021
- Digital Borderlands Program
- University of Arizona Libraries, Summer 2021
- Dozier Award Winner for best Paper
- The University of Arizona School of Anthropology, Spring 2016
- Global Fellowship
- Echoing Green, Fall 2014
- Letelier-Moffitt Memorial Human Rights Award
- The Institute for Policy Studies, Fall 2014
- Tucson's 40 Under 40
- Arizona Daily Star & Hispanic Chamber of Commerce, Fall 2014
Licensure & Certification
- CPR Certification, EMS University (2018)
Interests
Teaching
anthropology, migration, human rights, forensic anthropology, U.S.-Mexico border, history and cultures of the Southwest and Northern Mexico
Research
anthropology, migration, science and technology studies (STS), forensic anthropology, medical anthropology, U.S.-Mexico border, decolonial anthropology, ethnographic methods
Courses
2024-25 Courses
-
Forensic Anthropology
ANTH 365 (Spring 2025)
2023-24 Courses
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Forensic Anthropology
ANTH 365 (Spring 2024) -
Independent Study
ANTH 699 (Spring 2024) -
Cutting-Edge Advances
HRTS 496B (Fall 2023) -
Cutting-Edge Advances
HRTS 596B (Fall 2023) -
HRTS Masters Capstone
HRTS 909 (Fall 2023)
2022-23 Courses
-
Forensic Anthropology
ANTH 365 (Spring 2023) -
Many Ways of Being Human
ANTH 150B1 (Spring 2023) -
Senior Thesis
ANTH 498A (Spring 2023) -
Senior Thesis
ANTH 498A (Fall 2022)
2021-22 Courses
-
Forensic Anthropology
ANTH 365 (Spring 2022) -
Many Ways of Being Human
ANTH 150B1 (Spring 2022)
2020-21 Courses
-
Cutting-Edge Advances
HRTS 596B (Summer I 2021) -
HRTS Masters Capstone
HRTS 909 (Summer I 2021) -
Forensic Anthropology
ANTH 365 (Spring 2021) -
An Anthropology of Migration
ANTH 584 (Fall 2020) -
Anth of Migration and Border
ANTH 484 (Fall 2020)
2019-20 Courses
-
Cutting-Edge Advances
HRTS 596B (Summer I 2020) -
Independent Study
LAS 599 (Spring 2020) -
Spcl Tops Biologic Anth
ANTH 395D (Spring 2020)
2018-19 Courses
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Spcl Tops Biologic Anth
ANTH 395D (Spring 2019)
2017-18 Courses
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Spcl Tops Biologic Anth
ANTH 395D (Spring 2018)
2016-17 Courses
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Spcl Tops Biologic Anth
ANTH 395D (Spring 2017)
Scholarly Contributions
Chapters
- Anderson, B., & Reineke, R. C. (2023). Migration, Death, and Disappearance: Education and Engagement in Tucson, Arizona. In Migration, Displacement, and Higher Education Now What?(p. 333). Palgrave Macmillan.
- Reineke, R. C. (2019). Necroviolence and Postmortem Care Along the U.S.-Mexico Border. In The Border and Its Bodies: The Embodiment of Risk Along the U.S.-México Line(pp 144-172). Tucson, Arizona: University of Arizona Press.
Journals/Publications
- Soler, A., Reineke, R. C., Martinez, D. E., & Beatrice, J. S. (2021). Skeletal evidence of structural violence among undocumented migrants from Mexico and Central America.. American journal of physical anthropology. doi:10.1002/ajpa.24391More infoWe examine the prevalence and sociodemographic risk factors of skeletal indicators of stress in forensic samples of undocumented migrants from Mexico and Central America..Cranial and dental remains of 319 migrants recovered in the Arizona and Texas borderlands were assessed for porotic hyperostosis (PH), cribra orbitalia (CO), and linear enamel hypoplasias (LEH). Logistic regression models for each condition were estimated to test for associations with biological sex, age, recovery location, and whether individuals were identified. Additional models estimated for a subsample of identified migrants included region of origin, residential context, and community indigeneity..The full sample shows moderate crude prevalence of CO (9.6%) and LEH (34.1%), and a high prevalence of PH (49.6%). Significantly higher odds of PH are associated with being male (2.16 times higher), unidentified (1.89 times higher), and recovered in Arizona (3.76 times higher). Among identified migrants, we fail to find associations significant at the p
- Anderson, B. E., Reineke, R., Hughes, C. E., Algee-Hewitt, B. F., & Clausing, E. (2017). Temporal Patterns of Mexican Migrant Genetic Ancestry: Implications for Identification: Migrant Ancestry and Identification Trends. American Anthropologist, 119(2), 193-208. doi:10.1111/aman.12845
- Reineke, R. C., Martínez, D. E., Rubio-Goldsmith, R., & Parks, B. O. (2014). Structural Violence and Migrant Deaths in Southern Arizona: Data from the Pima County Office of the Medical Examiner, 1990–2013. Journal on Migration and Human Security, 2(4), 257-286. doi:10.1177/233150241400200401
Presentations
- Reineke, R. C. (2020, January 2020). The Disappearing Machine: The Disappearance and Erasure of Migrants along the U.S.-Mexico Border and Beyond. University of Arizona School of Geography & Development and the Southern Arizona Geographer Association. University of Arizona: School of Geography and Development.
- Reineke, R. C. (2019, November). Roundtable for Book: The Border and its Bodies. American Anthropological Association. Vancouver, Canada.
Others
- Rubio-Goldsmith, R., Martinez, D. E., Kreyche, M., Reineke, R. C., Boyce, G., Soto, G., Vogelsberg, C. C., Chambers, S., Launius, S., Parks, B., Anderson, B. E., Vollner, J., Hess, G., Hess, G., Vollner, J., Anderson, B. E., Launius, S., Parks, B., Vogelsberg, C. C., , Chambers, S., et al. (2021, April). Migrant Deaths in Southern Arizona: Recovered Undocumented Border Crosser Remains Investigated by the Pima County Office of the Mexican Examiner, 1990-2020. Binational Migration Institute Report.
- Reineke, R. C. (2019, August). Democracy Now, “’They Are Irreplaceable, and They Mattered’: Group Identifies Human Remains Along the Border.” https://www.democracynow.org/2019/8/19/robin_reineke_colibri_center_human_rights. Democracy Now. https://www.democracynow.org/2019/8/19/robin_reineke_colibri_center_human_rightsMore infoInterview with Amy Goodman of Democracy Now about the loss of life along the US-Mexico border.
- Reineke, R. C. (2019, December). CNN National Online: ‘No Olvidado’: These Americans find and bury missing migrants. CNN. https://www.cnn.com/interactive/2019/12/us/no-olvidado-missing-migrants-border/More infoA three-part documentary about death and dignity on the US-Mexico border. By Alexandra King, CNN. Film by Craig Waxman, Alexandra King and Alfredo Alcántara
