Diego Leal

Associate Professor
Photo of Diego Leal

Social Sciences 433

Documents

CV
Research Areas
Social networks
International migration
Social determinants of health
Diego F. Leal is an associate professor in the School of Sociology at the University of Arizona. He is affiliated with the Binational Migration Institute and the Center for Latin American Studies. He was born and raised in Bogotá, Colombia. 
 
Dr. Leal is broadly interested in the analysis of social network dynamics. He focuses on the social network aspects of relational inequalities, mostly as they manifest in the emergence and evolution of international migration systems and minority health outcomes. On those two fronts, Dr Leal's most recent research focuses on human rights violations by the U.S. government related to the enforced disappearance of international migrants and asylum seekers and on nicotine products use among adolescents. He uses a variety of methods, from focus groups and interviews to inferential network analysis and agent-based computational models.  His work has been published in the American Journal of Sociology, Social Networks, Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies, PLoS ONE, and several other outlets. 
 
Among others, Dr. Leal's research is currently being funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF) and the  National Cancer Institute (NCI) of the National Institutes of Health (NIH). In that context, Dr.  Leal is currently the Principal Investigator (jointly with Dr. James Thrasher) of a $2.8 million NCI/NIH R01 grant to study peer adolescent networks and nicotine products use in the U.S. and Mexico. Dr. Leal and his collaborators have been awarded over $8 million in research grants. For more information on Dr. Leal's latest research, please visit: www.diegoleal.info
 
El doctor Diego F. Leal nació y creció en Bogotá, Colombia. Para más información en español sobre sus investigaciones, puede contactarlo al correo dflc@arizona.edu o ir a la página web: www.diegoleal.info