Contact Information
M/C 150
1301 W. Green St.
Urbana, IL 61801
Research Areas
Research Interests
South-South Migration, Migration-Urbanization Nexus, Migrant-State Relations, Ordinary Urban Governance, Critical Infrastructure Studies, Latin American Urbanisms
Research Description
As an urban geographer and migration scholar, my research mainly explores urban peripheries and the spatial politics of migration in global South cities. My research is grounded in a long-time, caring, and committed engagement with migrant communities in Costa Rica. Nicaraguan migration to Costa Rica is one of the most significant south-south trajectories within the Americas and my work is empirically situated in the largest migrant urban informal settlement in Central American: La Carpio.
My current research focuses on three themes: 1) the material basis for migrant political subjectivities, for the development of migrant-state relations, and for forms of urban citizenship crafted in the urban peripheries; 2) the processes of racialized bordering that operate in cities simultaneously at the scale of migrant bodies and spaces (with a particular focus on environmental (in)justice); and 3) the ontological and epistemological blind spots that result from a global North bias in migration research. Overall, my research aims to contribute to understanding processes of migration through a “southern” lens, and migrant urbanism as an everyday, ordinary manifestation of migration projects as they unfold in cities.
Education
2020. Doctor of Philosophy, Geography, University of Denver.
2013. Master of Arts, Geography, University of Denver.
2010. Bachelor of Arts, Latin American Studies, California State University, Fullerton.
2010. Associate of Arts, Liberal Arts, Orange Coast College, Costa Mesa, CA.
Additional Campus Affiliations
Co-Director, Latin American and Caribbean Cities Collective
Affiliate, Center for Latin American and Caribbean Studies
Affiliate, LAS Global Studies
Current Graduate Students
Main Advisor
Marina Moscoso Arabía, PhD Program
Célio Moura, PhD Program
Co-Advisor
Vicky Brown Varela, PhD Program
Highlighted Publications
Alvarado, N.A. (2025). Nicaraguan Exiles and the Urbanization of Refuge in Costa Rica. Current History 124(859): 54–60.
Alvarado, N. A. (2025). Urban infrastructure and migrant citizenships: Notes towards migrant-state relations in the urban peripheries. Environment and Planning C: Politics and Space, 0(0). https://doi.org/10.1177/23996544241312886
Alvarado, N.A., & Vegliò, S. (2023). Intro to the Issue: Rethinking the Multiplicity of Urban Infrastructure. Urban Matters, November 2023
Alvarado, N.A. (2022). Migrant Politics in the Urban Global South: The Political Work of Nicaraguan Migrants to Acquire Urban Rights in Costa Rica. Geopolitics, 27(4), 1180–1204. DOI: 10.1080/14650045.2020.1777399.
Alvarado, N.A. (2020). Where Are the Cities? On Not Excluding (Much More Than) Half of the Latin Americans in Latin Americanist Geography. Journal of Latin American Geography, 19(1), 193–203.
LaVanchy, T., Taylor, M., Alvarado, N. A., Sveinsdóttir, A., & Aguilar-Støen, M. (2020). Tourism in Post-revolutionary Nicaragua: Struggles over Land, Water, and Fish (SpringerBriefs in Latin American Studies). Springer International Publishing. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-55632-7
Alvarado, N.A., & Taylor, M.J. (2014). ¿Del mar quién es dueño? [Who Owns the Sea?] Artisanal Fisheries, Tourism Development and the Struggles Over Access to Marine Resources in Playa Gigante, Nicaragua. Journal of Latin American Geography, 13(3), 37–62.