Stephen Mumme is Professor of Political Science at Colorado State University where he specializes in comparative environmental politics and policy with an emphasis on Mexican government and U.S.-Mexican water and environmental relations. Early in his career he developed a keen interest in Mexican demographic policy and immigration issues. Since joining the Colorado State University faculty in 1983 however most of his work has centered on water and environmental management along the U.S.-Mexico border. Unlike specialists who focus on these problems from an international relations perspective he prefers to examine these issues from a domestic politics perspective focusing on the politics and domestic governance that shapes political and diplomatic outcomes in bilateral controversies over water, territory, and natural resources. He continues to follow Mexican immigration issues however and teaches a section on the topic in his popular undergraduate course Politics and Society on the U.S.-Mexico Border.

He is the author of various monographs and book chapters, author of Border Water (2023), Apportioning Groundwater along the U.S.-Mexico Border (UCSD 1988) and co-author with Alan Lamborn of Statecraft Domestic Politics and Foreign Policy Making (Westview 1988).His journal articles appear in Political Research Quarterly, Policy Studies Journal, Policy Studies Review, Review of Policy Research,  Publius, Social Science Journal, Journal of Interamerican Studies and World Affairs, Environmental Politics, Natural Resources Journal, Journal of Environment and Development, Environmental Management, Environment, Government and Policy C: Environmental Planning, Tulane Journal of Environmental Law, Latin American Perspectives, North Carolina Journal of International Law and Commerce, Case Western International Law Journal, California Western International Law Journal, Journal of Borderlands Studies, Frontera Norte, Region y Sociedad,  Journal of Transboundary Water Resources, North American Outlook, North American Environmental Law and Policy, Journal of the West,  Journal of the Southwest, Denver Water Law Review, Global Society, Regions & Cohesion, International Journal of Sustainable Society, Globalizations, Journal of Water Law, and Latin American Research Review. He currently serves on the editorial boards of Region y Sociedad, Regions and Cohesion, the International Journal of Sustainable Society, with past service as deputy editor of the Social Science Journal and service on the boards of Journal of Borderlands Studies, Political Research Quarterly, Annual Editions: Developing Areas, and the Boundary and Security Bulletin. One of his articles on border water management,The Liquid Frontier,was published in the Best of the Decade edition of the Journal of the West in 2010.   He has authored numerous book chapters and opinion pieces--some of the latter have appeared in the The Hill, Health Affairs Blog, New York Times, Los Angeles Times, San Diego Union-Tribune, Denver Post, Arizona Republic, Ms. Magazine, The Conversation, Tucson Citizen, and the Arizona Daily Star.

Professor Mumme has served as a visiting professor at the University of Arizona's Guadalajara Summer Program, the American Graduate School for International Management, El Colegio de San Luis Potosi, El Colegio de Sonora, Universidad Autonoma de Ciudad Juarez, and CLE International.   He is a Non-Resident Research Scholar with the Mexico Center at the James Baker Institute for Policy Studies at Rice University and an affiliate faculty member of the School of Global Environmental Sustainability at Colorado State University.  Since 2010 he has served as the elected Co-President or President of the American Association of University Professors Colorado Conference (aaupcolorado.org).

He is recipient of the following awards:

Lifetime Achievement Award, Association for Borderlands Studies (2020)
Professor Laureate, College of Liberal Arts (2019-2021)
College of Liberal Arts Distinguished Service Award, 2017.
School of Global Environmental Sustainability Fellowship, 2016-2017
College of Liberal Arts Faculty Development Fund Award, 2015
Who's Who in America, 65th ed., 2011.
Panhellenic Council Outstanding Teacher Award, 2010.
Office of International Programs, Distinguished Service Award, 2009.
College of Liberal Arts John N. Stern Distinguished Professor Award, 2004
Jack E. Cermak Advising Award, Colorado State University, 2002.
William J. Fulbright Senior Scholar Award, 1998.
Hispanic Student Services, Faculty Service Award, 1987-88.
Center for U.S.-Mexican Studies Visiting Fellow,  University of California, San Diego, 1981
Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, Latin American Program, Summer Internship, 1980.

Professor Mumme has been interviewed and quoted in a wide range of publications including the Houston Chronicle, Spectrum News, Scripps News Service, Univision, Wall Street Journal, Dallas Morning News, Congressional Research Service, National Public Radio, Center for Biological Diversity's Revelator series, OnEarth Magazine, EcoAmericas, Texas Monthly, Denver Post, San Francisco Chronicle, Vice News, Greenwire, Las Vegas Sun, Arizona Daily Star, Albuquerque Journal, San Antonio Star-Telegram, Texas Tribune, Texas Observer, Inside Higher Ed, El Imparcial (Hermosillo, Sonora), Western Water Magazine, La Jornada (Mexico City),  BBC Mundo, Bloomberg News, San Diego Union-Tribune, and Politico, among others.