BA (UIA-León), MA (Goldsmiths), PhD (Goldsmiths)
An integral part of my academic work has been a commitment to engaged and engaging sociology with a deep concern for social justice. This has led me to develop projects that make racism visible and connect academic work with activism. My research focuses on the intersectional lived experience of ‘race’ and racism in Mexico and Latin America; antiracism and academic-based impact; feminist theory, intersectionality and racism. I am also interested in the global circulation of ideas about race, the current ‘turn to antiracism’ in Latin America and the Global South, and the move from anti-racism to anti-oppression, particularly the emotional impact of oppression and its relevance for social transformation.
In 2011 I co-founded the Colectivo para Eliminar el Racismo en México (COPERA), which has since grown into a wide network of academics and activists. COPERA develops initiatives to expose racism in its multiple forms, connect academia and activism, and incorporate a racial perspective in social movements and public policy.
I am currently leading the development of the Global Racisms Institute for Social Transformation (GRIST) in the Department of Sociology, established with seed funding from the W.K. Kellogg Foundation. GRIST is an interdisciplinary hub designed to foster curiosity, collaboration and transformation in the study of global racisms and intersectional inequalities.
I recently completed a British Academy Mid-Career Fellowship (2022–23) for the project The Structure Within: Internalised Oppression, Defensiveness and Resentment, which has produced a forthcoming book, a podcast, an animation film and a social media campaign to position the topic of internalised oppression in discussions of activism and social transformation.
My previous projects include research on Blackness, representation and women’s economic trajectories in the Costa Chica region of Mexico; a British Academy-funded study of institutional racism in Oaxaca; and the large ESRC-funded comparative project Latin American Antiracism in a ‘Post-Racial’ Age (LAPORA), which I directed with Professor Peter Wade. From LAPORA emerged our book Against Racism: Organizing for Social Change in Latin America (University of Pittsburgh Press, 2022), now also available in Spanish and Portuguese (2023).
I am co-editor of the Feminist Theory special issue Non-hegemonic beauties: a critical approach to beauty in (trans)national contexts (2025), and my recent work has explored the intersections of beauty, fatness, transness and race in non-hegemonic contexts.
Additional Links
I was awarded the 2017 Pilkington Teaching Prize, you can see this video about my teaching practice.
This other video from 2013 explores some aspects of my work in relation to beauty and racism in Mexico (with English subtitles)
Other recent pieces are:
- 2023 - Sharing Power with Professor Mónica Moreno Figueroa (Podcast)
- 2023 – Defining Racism in Antisocial BBC Radio 4 (Podcast)
- 2023 - Mestizaje: When The Shades Dissimulate Whiteness (magazine article in The Funambulist)
- 2022 - In Conversation with Dr Mónica Moreno Figueroa: on Engaged Sociology for the Struggle against Oppression (Interview for New Sociological Perspectives)
- 2022 - Blacks, Mestizos, and Mestizaje: The Complex Backstory (interview for Mexico Solidarity Project Bulletin)
- 2020 - Racism: Are we reaching a tipping point in our attitudes towards racial inequality? (Podcast presented by Ed Kessler in conversation with Monica Moreno Figueroa and Kenny Monrose)
- 2020 - The effects of oppression: learning to listen - (Presentation for Provoke15)
- 2018 - Declarations: Do Borders Hide or Reveal Rights? (Conversation with Dr Monica Moreno Figueroa for Declarations: The Human Rights Podcast)
- 2018 Commendation for ‘Innovative Teaching’ in the University of Cambridge Student Union’s Student-Led Teaching Awards (May 2018)
- 2017 Pilkington Teaching Prize in recognition of the excellence of my teaching at the University of Cambridge. June 2017 - you can see this video about my teaching practice. The prizes are awarded to individuals who make a substantial contribution to the teaching programme of a Department, Faculty or the University as a whole.
- 2017 Commendation for ‘Supporting Students’ in the University of Cambridge Student Union Student-Led Teaching Awards May 2017
- 2016 Cambridge University Student Union’s Women’s Campaign ‘Academic of the Year’ Award 2015-16, June 2016.
Books
Moreno Figueroa, Mónica G, and Peter Wade. 2022. Against Racism: Organizing for Social Change in Latin America: University of Pittsburgh Press.
Moreno Figueroa Mónica G, and Peter Wade. 2023. Contra o Racismo: Mobilização para a mudança social na América Latina. Pittsburgh: Latin America Research Commons.
Moreno Figueroa, Mónica G, and Peter Wade. 2023. Contra el racismo. Movilización para el cambio social en América Latina. Bogota: UNIANDES, UNAL, Abya Yala y UNAM
Journal articles
Moreno Figueroa, M. G., & Vartabedian, J. (2025). Reclaiming beauty: non-heteronormative and racialised conversations on fatness and transness. Feminist Theory, online first. https://doi.org/10.1177/14647001251351195
Vartabedian, J., & Moreno Figueroa, M. G. (2025). Non-hegemonic beauties: a critical approach to beauty in (trans)national contexts. Feminist Theory, online first. https://doi.org/10.1177/14647001251353112
Moreno Figueroa, M. G. (2024). Pandemonium. Parallax, 30(2), 287–288. https://doi.org/10.1080/13534645.2024.2451473
Moreno Figueroa, Mónica G. 2024. “What Is Disgust For? Anti-Black Racism In Mexico.” In Beyond Mestizaje: Contemporary Debates on Race in Mexico, edited by Tania Islas Weinstein, Milena Ang and Ellen Jones. Amherst, MA: Amherst College Press. https://doi.org/10.3998/mpub.14369172.
Moreno Figueroa, M. G., & Wade, P. (2024). Introduction: the turn to racism and anti-racism in Latin America. Ethnic and Racial Studies, 1–15. https://doi.org/10.1080/01419870.2024.2329335
Moreno Figueroa, M. G. (2024). On Blackness, images and anti-racist work. Ethnic and Racial Studies, 1–21. https://doi.org/10.1080/01419870.2024.2329337
Moreno Figueroa, M. G., & López Chávez, A. N. (2023) “A lo mejor yo soy auto-racista”: Un acercamiento al estudio del racismo internalizado en México (“Maybe I am racist towards myself”: An approach to the study of internalised racism in Mexico). Revista Euro latinoamericana de Análisis Social y Político (RELASP) Vol 3, No 6, 82-109,
Moreno Figueroa, M. G. (2022) "Entre confusiones y distracciones: mestizaje y racismo anti-negro en México." Estudios Sociológicos de El Colegio de México 40: 31-60 (Número especial).
Wade, Peter, & Mónica Moreno Figueroa. (2021) "Alternative grammars of anti-racism in Latin America." Interface: A Journal on Social Movements 13 (2) 20-50. and in Spanish Gramáticas Alternativas del Antirracismo en América Latina
Mora, Mariana & Mónica Moreno Figueroa (2021) ‘Reflections on Indigenous and Black Anti-racist and Anti-colonial Actions’ (co-written with Mariana Mora) in NACLA Report on the Americas (https://nacla.org) Link here
Moreno Figueroa, M. G. (2020) “De qué sirve el asco? Racismo anti-negro en México” (“What’s the use of disgust? Anti-Black racism in Mexico”) in Revista de la Universidad Nacional Dossier, Septiembre 2020, 62-67
Moreno Figueroa, M. G. (2016) “El Archivo del Estudio del Racismo en México”, (“The Archive of the Study of Racism in Mexico”) Desacatos 51, 92-107
Moreno Figueroa, MG and Saldivar, E. (2015) “We Are Not Racists, We Are Mexicans”: Privilege, Nationalism and Post-Race Ideology in Mexico. Critical Sociology 42(4-5), 515-533.
Moreno Figueroa, MG (2013) 'Displaced Looks: The Lived Experience of Beauty and Racism in Mexico'. Feminist Theory 2013, 14(2): 137-151.
Moreno Figueroa, MG (2010) 'Distributed Intensities: Whitenes, Mestizaje and the Logics of Mexican Racism', Ethnicities 10, 387-401.
Coleman, R and Moreno Figueroa, MG (2010) 'Past and Future Perfect? Beauty, Affect and Hope', Journal for Cultural Research 14(4), 357 – 373.
Moreno Figueroa, MG (2008) 'Looking Emotionally: Racism, Photography and Intimacies in Research' in History of the Human Sciences, 21(4), 66-83. Reprinted in Smart, B. et al (eds) (2013), Observational Methods, London: Sage. Volume 3, Part 3.
Moreno Figueroa, MG (2008) 'Historically-Rooted Transnationalism: Slightedness and the Experience of Racism in Mexican Families', Journal of Intercultural Studies, 29(3), 283-297.
Book chapters in edited collections
Moreno Figueroa, MG (2024) "What is disgust For? Anti-Black Racism in Mexico," in Islas Weinstein, T., Ang, M., and Jones, E. (eds.), Beyond Mestizaje: Contemporary Debates on Race in Mexico. MA: Amherst College Press.
Moreno Figueroa, MG (2021) ‘Picking your battles: beauty, complacency, and the other life of racism’ in Craig, Maxine (ed.) The Routledge Companion to Beauty Politics, Routledge
Moreno Figueroa, MG and Saldivar, E. (2015) “Comics, Dolls and The Disavowal of Racism: Learning from Mexican Mestizaje”, in Gutierrez, E, Little, M, and Tate, S. (eds.), Creolising Europe: Legacies and Transformations. Liverpool: Liverpool University Press.
Moreno Figueroa, MG (2013) 'Don't you see' [personal reflection], in Casanova, Eryn & Jafar, Ashfan (eds.), Bodies without Borders: Migrating Discourses of Embodiment, New York: Palgrave Macmillan, pp. 45-49.
Moreno Figueroa, MG (2012) 'Linda Morenita: Skin Colour, Beauty and the Politics of Mestizaje in Mexico' in Horrocks, C. (ed.) Cultures of Colour: Visual, Material, Textual, Oxford and New York: Berghahn Books, pp. 167-180.
Moreno Figueroa, MG (2011) 'Naming ourselves: Recognising Racism and Mestizaje in Mexico' in McLaughlin, J., Phillimore, P. and Richardson, D. (eds.), Contesting Recognition, Culture, Identity and Citizenship. Basingstoke: Palgrave, pp. 122-143.