Heide Castañeda is a Professor of Anthropology at the University of South Florida. Her research areas include critical border studies, political and legal anthropology, medical anthropology, migration, migrant health, and citizenship, focusing on the U.S./Mexico border, Mexico, Germany, and Morocco.

She is the author of Migration and Health: Critical Perspectives (Routledge, 2023), Borders of Belonging: Struggle and Solidarity in Mixed-Status Immigrant Families (Stanford U Press, 2019) and co-editor of Unequal Coverage: The Experience of Health Care Reform in the United States (NYU Press, 2018).

Her latest book is American Amazigh: Remaking North African Indigeneity and Belonging in the Diaspora (NYU Press, 2026).

Dr. Castañeda has also published over 60 peer-reviewed research articles. Her research has been cited over 6,000 times and she has an h-index of 32 and i10- index of 58. Her work has been funded by the National Science Foundation, National Institutes of Health, the Fulbright Program, the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD), and the Wenner-Gren Foundation for Anthropological Research.

Email: hcastaneda@usf.edu