Latin American and Latino Studies

32 Merrill College
(831) 459-4284
http://lals.ucsc.edu

Faculty and Professional Interests

Core Faculty

Gabriela Arredondo, Associate Professor of Latin American and Latino Studies
Latina/o studies; U.S. immigration history; U.S. social and cultural history; Chicana/o history; critical race and ethnicity theories; Chicana and Mexicana feminisms; “borderlands” studies; history of modern Mexico

John G. Borrego, Professor of Latin American and Latino Studies
Global political economy, national development, urban and regional planning, community organizing, social change, ethnic minorities, Mexico and the Southwest

Guillermo Delgado-P, Lecturer of Latin American and Latino Studies
Latin American cultures; comparative indigeneity; indigenous property rights; cultures of the sacred; ecologies and peasantries; Quechua/Andean linguistics, mining, labor history; alternative/electronic journalism; anthropology in the developing world; interethnicity; urbanization; social movements; culture theory

Jonathan Fox, Professor of Latin American and Latino Studies
Latin American and Latino politics, including issues of democratization, accountability, social movements, transnational civil society, social and environmental policy, and immigration

Rosa-Linda Fregoso, Professor of Latin American and Latino Studies
Cultural studies, feminist studies, film and visual culture, human-rights studies, and gender-based violence

Shannon Gleeson, Assistant Professor, Latin American and Latino Studies
Migrant populations, the effects of documentation status, labor rights, civic engagement, inequality and stratification, political sociology, law and society, mixed methods and comparative approaches

Walter L. Goldfrank, Professor of Latin American and Latino Studies and Sociology
Social change, historical sociology, world systems, modern Mexico, Chile, social movements and revolution, development theories, policies and outcomes

Susanne Jonas, Lecturer of Latin American and Latino Studies
Latin American immigration and Latino communities in the U.S., comparative Latin American politics, contemporary Central America, Central American binational organizing, U.S.-Latin American cross-border issues, U.S. foreign policy in Latin America, the Left in Latin America, comparative peace processes in Central America and worldwide

Flora Lu, Assistant Professor of Latin American and Latino Studies
Ecological anthropology, human behavioral ecology, Amazon rainforest, indigenous peoples, conservation, Ecuador, culture change, market integration, indigenous resource management, political ecology, environmental justice

Manuel Pastor Jr., Professor of Latin American and Latino Studies
Urban poverty and regional development, Latinos in the urban U.S., environmental justice, macroeconomic stabilization in Latin America; distribution and growth in the developing world; Cuban economic reform; Mexican economic reform

Hector Perla, Jr., Assistant Professor of Latin American and Latino Studies
International relations; Latin American studies; Latino politics; political psychology; Central America; U.S. foreign policy; social and revolutionary movements; asymmetric conflicts

Cecilia M. Rivas, Assistant Professor of Latin American and Latino Studies
Salvadoran transnationalism; media (Internet, newspapers); migration; globalization; race, ethnicity, and gender; bilingualism; consumption; El Salvador; Central America

Patricia Zavella, Professor of Latin American and Latino Studies
Chicana/o-Latina/o studies, women's work and domestic labor, poverty, family, sexuality and social networks, feminist studies, ethnographic research methods, and transnational migration of Mexicana/o workers and U.S. capital

Participating Faculty

Mark D. Anderson, Assistant Professor of Anthropology
Racial formation, diaspora, nationalism, transnationalism, indigeneity, consumption, Central America, Honduras, Latin America, African diaspora

Julianne Burton-Carvajal, Professor of Literature
Twentieth- and 21st-century Latin(o) American visual media, particularly film; melodrama as a transnational form; gender and authorship; history, cultures, and representations of California, particularly the Central Coast

Jeffrey T. Bury, Assistant Professor of Environmental Studies
Political ecology; sustainable development; Latin American studies; international relations; institutional dimensions of natural resource conservation in the global south

Pedro G. Castillo, Associate Professor of History
Chicano/a history and culture; American social and urban history; race, class, and gender in California history, immigration history, Latina/os in the U.S.

Carolyn Dean, Professor of History of Art and Visual Culture
Cultural histories of the native Americas and colonial Latin America

Maria Elena Diaz, Associate Professor of History
Colonial Caribbean and Latin America; social and cultural history; ethnohistory; slavery, race, and gender

Kent H. Eaton, Associate Professor of Politics
Comparative politics, international relations, political economy, public policy, territorial conflict, federalism, decentralization, party and electoral systems, Latin America, the Philippines

Lisbeth Haas, Associate Professor of History
U.S.-Mexico borderlands, Chicano and Native American history; visual culture in the colonial Americas; the U.S. West and California; historical memory, theory, and historical methodology

Norma Klahn, Professor of Literature
Latin American literary and cultural studies (specialization: Mexico), Chicano/Latino literature and culture from a cross-border perspective, modernity/postmodernity, poetics and politics, genre theory (novel, poetry, autobiography), contemporary critical theories (i.e., border, ethnic, feminist, transnational/global)

Alma R. Martinez, Associate Professor of Theater Arts
Acting, directing, dramatic criticism, Chicano/a theater with a focus on El Teatro Campesino and Luis Valdez, contemporary Mexican and Latin American, popular/political theater, Latino/a images in films

Lourdes Martínez-Echazábal, Associate Professor of Latin American Literature
Latin American and Caribbean literatures; Afro-Latin American literatures, cultures, and societies; found[n]ational narratives; Brazilian literature; literatures of Cuba and the Cuban diaspora; critical race theory

Olga Nájera-Ramírez, Professor of Anthropology
Folklore theory, ritual, festival, dance, greater Mexican culture, history and folklore, transnationalism, identity; expressive culture, ethnomusicology, bilingual communication, gender, history, and culture of Latin America, the U.S., and Mexico

Marcia Ochoa, Assistant Professor of Community Studies
Gender and sexuality, race and ethnicity, Latina/o studies, media and cultural studies, ethnography of media, feminism, queer theory, multimedia production, Latin American studies—Colombia and Venezuela, political philosophy, geography

Matthew D. O’Hara, Assistant Professor of History
Modern Latin America and Mexico; late colonial Latin America; religion, spirituality, and ritual; urban history; race, ethnicity, and identity; political culture

Paul Ortiz, Associate Professor of Community Studies
African American history, U.S. social and political history, social documentary, oral history, subaltern studies and theories of resistance, U.S. South, Latino studies, social movements, working-class history; history of farm labor, African diaspora

Juan Poblete, Associate Professor of Literature
Latin(o) American literatures; transnational/global cultures (literature, radio, film); Latin(o) American cultural studies; 19th-century studies; the history of reading practices

Catherine Ramirez, Assistant Professor of American Studies
Chicana and U.S. Latino literature and history; gender studies and feminist theory; visual culture and style politics; cultural studies; popular and urban youth cultures; speculative fiction, comparative American studies

B. Ruby Rich, Professor of Community Studies
Documentary film and video, post-9/11 culture, new queer cinema, feminist film history, Latin American and Latin/a cinema, U.S. independent film and video, the essay film, the politics of film festival proliferation and the marketing of foreign films in the U.S.

Gabriela Sandoval, Assistant Professor of Sociology
Latino/a sociology, voting and representational politics, urban sociology, political sociology

Felicity Schaeffer-Grabiel, Assistant Professor of Feminist Studies
Transnational feminism, migration, Latin American/Latino studies, Chicana/o studies, Internet, technology and the body, sexuality, gender and globalization

Helen Shapiro, Associate Professor of Sociology
Political economy, Latin American economic history and development (with an emphasis on Brazil), industrial policy, the auto industry, the state and transnational corporations

Gustavo O. Vazquez, Assistant Professor of Film and Digital Media
Film and video production, directing drama, documentary and experimental cross-cultural experiences in film, film curator

Affiliated Faculty

Judith Aissen, Professor of Linguistics
Syntax, morphology, Optimality Theory, Mayan languages

Jorge Aladro Font, Professor of Spanish Literature
Spanish mysticism, theory and historical developments of imagery in the Middle Ages to the baroque period, Renaissance and baroque Hispanic literature, Italian ideas in the Spanish Renaissance, Cervantes

Robert W. Fairlie, Associate Professor of Economics
Labor economics, public policy, entrepreneurship, applied econometrics

Dana Frank, Professor of History
U.S. social and economic history; women, labor, and working-class history; contemporary political economy; modern Central America

Gregory S. Gilbert, Professor of Environmental Studies
Tropical ecology and conservation, disease ecology

Stephen R. Gliessman, Alfred E. Heller Professor of Agroecology (Environmental Studies)
Agroecology, sustainable agriculture, tropical land use and development, alternative trade networks, sustainable livelihoods and conservation, community and agroecology

María Victoria González-Pagani, Lecturer in Spanish Language
Language teaching methodology; Spanish syntax; computer-assisted foreign language learning; Latin American cultural studies, especially women's contributions

David E. Goodman, Professor Emeritus of Environmental Studies

Kirsten Silva Gruesz, Professor of Literature
Chicano/Latino literatures and cultures, Comparative Americas studies, language ideologies and bilingualism in literature

Daniel Guevara, Associate Professor of Philosophy
Kant, moral philosophy, moral psychology, environmental ethics, history of modern philosophy

Craig Haney, Professor of Psychology
Applications of social psychological principles to legal settings, assessment of the psychological effects of living and working in institutional environments, social contextual origins of violence, development of alternative legal and institutional forms

Karen D. Holl, Pepper-Giberson Professor, Environmental Studies
Restoration ecology, conservation biology, landscape ecology

Aida Hurtado, Professor of Psychology
Social identity, feminist theory, social psychology of education, survey methodology

Kenneth Kletzer, Professor of Economics
International economics, macroeconomics, economic development

Deborah Letourneau, Professor of Environmental Studies
Agroecology, tropical biology, insect-plant interactions, biological control as an alternative to chemical pesticides

Daniel T. Linger, Professor of Anthropology
Self and identity, politics, cultural theory, cities, violence, transnational experience, Brazil, Japan

Paul M. Lubeck, Professor of Sociology
Political sociology; political economy of development, globalization, labor and work; logics of methodology; religion and social movements; Islamic society and identities; information and networks

Judit Moschkovich. Associate Professor of Mathematics Education
Mathematics cognition and learning, student conceptions of linear functions, discourse in mathematics classrooms, Latino mathematics learners, bilingual mathematics learners, mathematics instruction for English learners

Eduardo Mosqueda, Associate Professor of Education
Mathematics education of English learners; large-scale dataset quantitative analysis; urban education issues

Lucinda Pease-Alvarez, Associate Professor of Education
Language and literacy development, language-minority education, bilingualism, informal learning

Jennifer Poole, Assistant Professor of Economics
International trade, Latin American economics, applied microeconomics

Michael Rotkin, Lecturer in Community Studies
Marxist theory, capitalist system, community organizing, electoral politics, media, government programs, community power structure, institutional analysis, and affirmative action

John M. Schechter, Professor of Music
Cultural musicology; Ibero-American musics of South America; Quechua music culture; American Indian music and thought; music theory; music and ritual; music and discourse; transculturative music-making; Stravinsky; Founder, UCSC Latin American Ensembles (dir. 1986-2000)

Ana Maria Seara, Lecturer, Portuguese Language
Portuguese language; literature, film, and music of Brazil and the Portuguese-speaking world; acquisition and teaching of foreign, second, and heritage languages

David G. Sweet, Professor Emeritus of History

Dana Takagi, Professor of Sociology
Social inequality and identity, research methods, race relations, nationalism and social movements

Kip Telléz, Associate Professor of Education
Preparation of teachers for linguistic and cultural diversity, second language learning, studies of the school curriculum, educational assessment

Larry Trujillo, Lecturer in Community Studies
Chicana/o studies, ethnic studies, grassroots community organizations, prison-industrial complex, student development, Chicano music

Rasmus Winther, Assistant Professor of Philosophy
Philosophy of science, epistemology, metaphysics, philosophy of biology, American pragmatism, Latin American philosophy, evolutionary theory

Karen Tei Yamashita, Associate Professor of Literature(Creative Writing)
History and anthropology of Japanese immigration to Brazil, Asian American literature, modern fiction, playwriting