Marty Otañez

Born and raised in Marin County, California, I moved to Denver in 2008. My mom is from Chicago with roots in German/Irish culture and my father is from the Sierra region in Ecuador. I’m a first-generation college graduate. In 1991-1993, I lived and studied in Nigeria where I received a master’s degree in political science from the University of Ibadan. To continue my global education, I earned a second master’s degree with a specialization in labor and employment studies at the Institute for Social Studies in Den Haag, The Netherlands in 1995. For my doctoral work in anthropology at the University of California Irvine I focused on the livelihoods of tobacco farmers and farm workers, labor union struggles and corporate accountability issues in Malawi’s tobacco growing sector. Currently, I am the Chair and Associate Professor in the Anthropology Department, University of Colorado Denver.

Recent publications include "Cannabis Workers' Counterstories and Stigma Reduction in Colorado," Voices in Mexico (2023), the chapter co-authored with David Vergara, “Cannabis Corporate Social Responsibility Initiatives: A Critical Approach to Research and Practice,” in The Routledge Handbook of Interdisciplinary Cannabis Research (2021, PDF); “A Labor Studies Approach to Cannabis,” in The Routledge Handbook of Interdisciplinary Cannabis Research (2021, PDF), and the manuscript co-authored with Jassy Grewal, “Health and Safety in the Legal Cannabis Industry Before and During COVID-19, New Solutions: A Journal of Environmental and Occupational Health Policy (2020, PDF). 

In 2023, my colleague Dr. Aaraón Díaz Mendiburo, Centro de Investigaciones sobre América del Norte, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, and I will be releasing a co-edited book with four volumes focused on an arts-based approach to cannabis research and anti-drug stigma reduction.

Natalie Underberg-Goode, Professor in the University of Central Florida, and I are co-editing the book Exploring Digital Ethnography: From Principles to Practice, Routledge, planned for 2025.

I’m a filmmaker and produce the web-based television show called Getting High on Anthropology: A Story-Based Approach to Cannabis Research, Education and Funding. Filmmaking is integrated in my research and creative projects at CU Denver. In 2022, I administered digital storytelling projects about experiences of university students, staff and faculty members who self-identify as Black, Indigenous and people of color (BIPOC). Also, I am analyzing 76 short videos about opioid overdose reversals and naloxone to promote harm reduction and reduce stigma against drug users. Funds for the project received from the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment, and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention ‘Overdose Data to Action’ grant. For additional details visit the project webpage Naloxone Champions. 

In 2023, I am conducting interviews with people of color about their experiences and concerns related to psilcobyin ("magic mushrooms") as part of the study "Psilocybin Use Among BIPOC Community Members in Colorado" (COMIRB #22-1797). Additional details are on the project web page.

Through a Community Grant Program Award from the Source Research Foundation in 2023, I am organizing a psychedelic-related speaker series with 10 people of color in Colorado focused on topics such as decolonizing psychedelics, indigenous rights, structural racism, white supremacy, medicalization and corporations. Goals of the project are to increase community awareness of BIPOC-related issues and concerns in psychedelic spaces in colorado, and provide educational material to policy makers.

My free time is spent with my wife Michelle and two teenage boys. Hobbies include bicycling, hiking, traveling and making videos.