Manuel (MJR) Montoya, Ph.D. is an Associate professor of Global Structures and International Management at the University of New Mexico, Department of Economics.  Dr. Montoya researches global political economy and is concerned with how we make “planetarity” a meaningful part of our social and economic realities, to this end has published work on issues ranging from international trade to creative economy.  

Dr. Montoya has delivered over 100 lectures across the world and is recognized as a leader in the field of critical management studies.  He received his undergraduate degree at UNM in Economics and English and received his graduate education at New York University (MA), Oxford University (MLitt) and Emory University as a George Woodruff Fellow (PhD, Foreign Relations and Comparative Literature).  Manuel is UNM’s first Latinx Rhodes Scholar and is also a Harry S. Truman Scholar.  As a member of the Council on Foreign Relations, he has worked to develop an online classroom to help improve Global Literacy (World 101).  In 2021, Manuel was selected as UNM’s Presidential Teaching Fellow, UNM’s highest teaching honor. 

Manuel is currently focusing on a concept he refers to as “rural cosmopolitanism” or “enchantment economy”, which integrates economic theory with critical perspectives on geopolitics, craft economy, and value-chain analysis.  This is important to him in private life, where he has been an amateur watchmaker for 12 years, and is a published poet and short story writer.  Dr. Montoya was born and raised in Mora, New Mexico.