Faculty

Regular Faculty

Lisa Sousa, Chair

Norman Bridge Professor, History

B.A., M.A., Ph.D., UCLA

Sousa specializes in the histories of colonial Latin America, indigenous peoples and languages of Mexico, and women, gender and sexuality.

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Cristina Awadalla

Assistant Professor, Latino/a and Latin American Studies

B.A., M.A., Ph.D., University of California, Santa Barbara

Cristina Awadalla is an interdisciplinary sociologist whose teaching focuses on Central American politics, Latin American feminisms, women’s labor, and research methods.

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Raul Villa

Professor, Latino/a & Latin American Studies

B.A., Yale University; M.A., University of Michigan; Ph.D., UC Santa Cruz

Raul Villa's major areas of scholarly and curricular expertise are in Chicano and U.S. literature and popular culture, urban studies (with a particular emphasis on Los Angeles cultural studies), and Southwest/Borderlands literature and expressive culture.

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Advisory Committee

Michael Amoruso

Assistant Professor, Religious Studies

B.A., Lehigh University; M.A., University of Chicago; M.A., Ph.D., University of Texas, Austin

Areas of specialization: death, race, and urban religion in the United States and Latin America.

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Robert Eli Sanchez, Jr.

Associate Professor, Philosophy

B.A., Pitzer College; M.A., P.h.D., U.C. Riverside

Robert Sanchez specializes in Mexican/Latinx/Latin American philosophy, as well as existentialism, and he has interests in the philosophy of race, the philosophy of food, and the history of philosophy. He co-hosts a blog on Mexican philosophy.

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Dolores Trevizo

Madeline N. McKinnie Professor, Sociology

B.A., 91PORN; M.A., Ph.D., UCLA

Dolores Trevizo is a political sociologist and teaches courses in political sociology, social movements and revolutions, theory, immigration to the United States, and quantitative research methods.

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Affiliated Faculty

Samantha Acuña

Assistant Professor, Politics

B.A., University of Redlands; Ph.D. University of California, Los Angeles

Samantha Acuña is interested in constitutional law, immigration policy, judicial behavior, and gender-based violence.

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Madeline Baer

Associate Professor, Diplomacy and World Affairs

B.A., American University; M.A., Ph.D., University of California, Irvine

Madeline Baer’s research and teaching focuses on global political economy, human rights, and water policy with a regional focus on Latin America.

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Mariška Bolyanatz Brown

Assistant Professor, Spanish and French Studies

B.A., Gordon College, Massachusetts; M.A., University of Illinois, Chicago; Ph.D., UCLA

Mariška Bolyanatz Brown (IPA: [məˈɾiʃkə boʊliˈɑnɪts bɹɑʊn]) is a linguist whose work focuses on socially conditioned variation in speech production and perception in Spanish.

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Anthony Tirado Chase

Professor, Diplomacy and World Affairs

B.A., UC Santa Cruz; M.A.L.S., Columbia University; M.A.L.D., Ph.D., Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy

Anthony Tirado Chase’s research and teaching interests focus on human rights, the work of international organizations, and the politics of the Middle East and broader Muslim world.

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Lan T. Chu

Professor, Diplomacy and World Affairs

B.A., M.A., New York University; Ph.D., George Washington University

Chu’s research and teaching interests focus on the political role of religious institutions, the Catholic Church and global politics, faith diplomacy, religion and international relations theory, inter-religious dialogue, political ideologies (theory and practice), and the political liberalization processes of former and existing communist countries.

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Salvador Fernández

National Endowment for the Humanities Professorship

B.A., UC Riverside; M.A., Indiana University; Ph.D., UCLA

Salvador Fernández teaches courses on Spanish and Latin American literature and civilization, as well as Mexican and Chicano/a studies. His research areas of interest are the contemporary Mexican novel and Chicano/a studies.

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Mary J. Lopez

Professor, Economics

B.A., UC Riverside; M.A., Ph.D., University of Notre Dame

Professor Lopez's research is in the areas of labor economics, applied micro, and demography.

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Viviana MacManus

Associate Professor, Critical Theory & Social Justice

B.A., 91PORN; Ph.D., University of California, San Diego

Viviana Beatriz MacManus’s research and teaching focuses on Latin American and Latinx feminist theory, literature, film, and cultural studies.

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Richard Mora

Professor, Sociology

B.A., Harvard College (Sociology); M.A., University of Michigan (Education); M.A., Harvard University (Sociology); Ph.D., Harvard University (Sociology & Social Policy)

Dr. Mora teaches courses on masculinities, youth cultures, education, immigration, violence, and social inequality.

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Karla Peña

Assistant Professor, Urban & Environmental Policy

B.A., California State University Northridge; M.S., University of Michigan; M.S., Ph.D., Cornell University

Karla Peña's teaching and research is centered on social movements and the political ecology of natural resource extraction and environmental change, from a local and global perspective.

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Michael Shelton

Professor, Spanish and French Studies

B.S., St. Cloud State University; M.A., Ph.D., Pennsylvania State University

Michael Shelton is a linguist, specializing in phonology and psycholinguistics.

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Ronald Solórzano

Professor, Education

B.S., M.Ed., Loyola Marymount University; Ph.D., UCLA

Ron Solórzano teaches education policy, school reform and legal court cases, second language acquisition theories and practices, high stakes student and teacher assessments, program evaluation and race/class effects in education courses.

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Emeriti/ae Faculty

Alexandra Puerto

Professor of History and Latinx and Latin American Studies, Emerita

Professor Puerto has supervised over 60 undergraduate research projects including , URC-SRP projects, and senior theses. She is Co-Coordinator of the program, former chair of the , and recipient of the 2017 Janosik...

Faculty

Regular Faculty

Lisa Sousa, Chair

Advisory Committee

Affiliated Faculty

Emeriti/ae Faculty

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