Dr. Rojas has a B.A. in Ethnology, an M.A. in Anthropological Sciences, and a Ph.D. in Social Sciences (specialization in Anthropology) from the Universidad Iberoamericana (1985). She has worked as a researcher in the Centro de Investigaciones y Estudios Superiores en Antropología Social (CIESAS) since 1973, and was General Director from 1990-1996. She became a member of Mexico’s National System of Researchers in 1985 (Level III).

She received the Francisco Javier Clavijero Prize in History and Ethnohistory from the Instituto Nacional de Antropología e Historia for the best Doctoral thesis (1985), and the Mexican Academy of Sciences Award for Social Sciences (1987). She is now a Member of the Sub-Committee for Scientific Policy of the Consulting Forum on Science and Technology, and the External Academic Committee of the Social Sciences Department, Universidad Iberoamericana, Adviser to the Academic Committee of Mexico’s Archivo General de la Nación and Vice-President of the Mexican History of Science and Technology Society. A pioneer in the historical study of earthquakes in Mexico, she specializes in the ethnohistory of agriculture, irrigation and Mesoamerican technology and its transformation in the Vice-regal period.

She has coordinated various joint research projects on her topics of interest and several archival and documental inquiries that produced indexes, catalogues and compilations of colonial manuscripts, 19th-century newspapers, and historical photography. She is Co-Director of the collections: Historia de los Pueblos Indígenas de México (CIESAS/INI, with Mario H. Ruz), (20 vols.); Bienes y vidas olvidados. Testamentos indígenas novohispanos (4 vols.); and Colección Agraria (20 vols.), which contains the results of inquiries and archival research conducted through the Archivos Agrarios project (CIESAS/RAN) which she served as General Coordinator. Today she is the lead researcher on two projects: El mundo indígena y su iconografía: 1826-1947 (CIESAS/CONACYT) and Catálogo electrónico y Banco de imágenes de la Fototeca Nacho López (since 2002).