Isaac Rivera

  • Assistant Professor of Geography
  • Chancellor's Postdoctoral Fellow
  • Latinx & Indigenous Geographies
  • Critical Cartographies
  • Digital & Visual Politics
  • Social Movements
  • The Geohumanities
  • Environmental Justice
  • PhD University of Washington, 2023
  • HUMAN GEOGRAPHY
Isaac Rivera

Research Interests

My research program is collaborative, community oriented, and interdisciplinary. My research spans several intersecting fields in human geography, including digital geographies, Latinx & Indigenous geographies, the geo-humanities, urban settler colonialism, and environmental justice. My dissertation investigates the making and unmaking of settler imaginaries in Colorado and how Denver’s Indigenous communities refuse otherwise. I am currently working on a book project titled, Insurgent Cartographies & The Undoing of Settler Imaginaries. In addition to my book project, I am also exploring questions on matters of pedagogy in Latinx Geographies, including the tensions, contradictions, and responsibilities of enacting Latinx Geographies on Indigenous lands. As a Xicanx geographer, teacher, and organizer, I strive to be a good relative, colleague, and community member across the Latinx diaspora and beyond.

Recent Publications

  • Rivera, I., & Eagle, V. (2024). (Re)Mapping Native Denver and the Making of Native Assembled Counter-Cartographies. GeoHumanities, 10(2), 423–445.
  • Rivera, I. (2023), Towards accountable digital geographies. Dialogues in Human Geography. https://doi.org/10.1177/20438206231177080
  • Rivera, I. (2023), Undoing settler imaginaries: (Re)imagining digital knowledge politics. Progress in Human Geography, 47(2), 298-316. https://doi.org/10.1177/03091325231154873
  • Rivera, I., Elwood, S., & Lawson, V. (2022), Portraits for change: Refusal politics and liberatory futures. Environment and Planning D: Society and space, 40(4), 627-645.

Updated August 2023