Manuel (MJR) Montoya, Ph.D. (he/him) is an Associate professor of Global Political Economy and Cultural Economics at UNM’s Department of Economics.  His work focuses on global political economy and how we make the planet a meaningful part of our social and economic realities and has published work on issues ranging from international trade to creative economy.  He attended UNM where he became UNM’s first Latinx Rhodes Scholar.  He then attended Oxford University where he received a master’s degree in philosophy, NYU where he studied politics and literature, and received his PhD from Emory University in International Relations and Comparative Literature.   He has delivered over 100 lectures across the world and has advised world leaders on emerging markets and global conflict.  He is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations.  He recently received UNM’s Presidential Teaching Fellowship, UNM’s highest teaching honor.   He is the creator of Terra Prime, a card based learning and conversational tool.  He is the academic advisor for the Binational Business Program, a collaboration with the New Mexico Trade Alliance and COMEXUS/Garcia Robles Foundation where he hosts Fulbright scholars at UNM designed to raise the economic profile of New Mexico and Mexico.  He is also the research design instructor for the Ronald McNair program, and a teaching fellow for Summa Academia, which supports first gen and BIPOC students to develop graduate level research strategies.  He has curated a museum show focusing on systems of value and developed a podcast called Vessels and Voids, which he uses to discuss the link between popular culture and global civil society.  He has written a book of poetry and a collection of short stories and has been an amateur watchmaker for the past 15 years.  Dr. Montoya was born and raised in Mora, New Mexico.