Dr. Miriam Elizabeth Villanueva (She/Ella) is a Chicana, Fronteriza from the South Texas border and a historian of modern Latin American history, primarily twentieth century Central American history. She received her Ph.D. from Texas Christian University (2017) with an emphasis on cultural studies and borderland theory. She has published in the Journal of South Texas and the edited book, Latin America and the Global Cold War. Her work discusses how Panama’s anti-imperialist military government tapped into rising Third Worldism on the streets during the 1970s. Analyzing General Omar Torrijos’ multilayered struggle to liberate his country’s Canal Zone from U.S. occupation, Villanueva uncovers the Panamanian military’s strategic alliance with anti-colonial social movements. Successfully employing Third World cultural theory to reimagine Panama’s decades-long struggle for canal sovereignty, the military’s coalition with artists and students won domestic and foreign legitimacy amid rising anti-imperialist sentiment throughout the Global South.​
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Currently, she’s an educator at Phillips Academy in Andover, Massachusetts. As the 10th Grade World History Course Head, she has mentored new faculty on best teaching and grading practices. She has given workshops for more than half a decade on designing curriculum that reflects equity design and culturally sustaining and responsive approaches. She has served on advisory boards for curriculum projects at the Boston Athenaeum, the Oliver Wendell Holmes Library, the Brace Center for Gender and Sexuality Studies, and Phillips Academy’s Archive and Special Collections department. In 2024, she received the Kass Teacher fellowship from the Massachusetts Historical Society to create Latin American history lessons.