Dr. Gil-García has worked with colleagues on how US immigration enforcement priorities create barriers to health services for unaccompanied minors. He has also co-authored articles with students that explore the policy relevance of broadening healthcare to the undocumented and health impacts of family separations.
Óscar F. Gil-García was an assistant professor at Binghamton University and DePauw University. He was also a UC Chancellor’s Post-doctoral fellow at UCLA and is a recipient of the UB CDI Distinguished Visiting Fellowship.
Dr. Gil-García’s current book project, tentatively titled, Legacies of Forced Migration and Photographic Testimonio of Indigenous Maya in the Americas, examines the overarching problem of state policies at the border and their corresponding effects on individuals and the bonds of families. It documents how traumatic memories associated to the Guatemalan war (1960-1996) and family separations form part of the everyday violence experienced by Indigenous Maya who live in Mexico and the United States.
2021 Gil-García, Ó. F., Bové, F. M., Velazquez, L. F., Vener, S., Miranda, A. L. "It Felt Like My Son Had Died": Zero Tolerance and The Trauma of Family Separation" Latino Studies, Vol. 19, 260-268.
2019 The Prospera Conditional Cash Transfer Program and Its Impact on Education, Labor, and Migration in an Indigenous Mayan Community in Chiapas, Mexico. Journal of Prevention and Intervention in the Community, 49(1).
2018 From Stateless to Citizen: Indigenous Guatemalan Refugees in Mexico. E-misférica, 13(2).
2018 The Practice of Trust, Disclosure, and Collaboration with Guatemalan Refugees. Practicing Anthropology, 40(1), 37-42.
2016 Gender Equality, Community Divisions and Autonomy: The Prospera Conditional Cash Transfer Program in Chiapas, Mexico. Current Sociology, 64(3), 447-469.