Department News, August 2024

Departmental News

Posted: Sep 01, 2024 - 12:00am

Publications and Reports

Jessica Goodkind and colleagues (including PhD alum, C. Estela Vasquez Guzman) published a paper in the American Journal of Orthopsychiatry titled “From Multi-level to Trans-level Interventions: Creating Sustainable Social Change to Improve Mental Health.”  https://doi.org/10.1037/ort0000754
Nancy López and her colleagues published a research report titled Latino is Not a Race: Understanding Lived Experiences Through Street Race through the Latino Policy and Politics Institute at University of California-Los Angeles, https://latino.ucla.edu/research/latino-is-not-a-race/
Eli Wilson’s new book, Handcrafted Careers: Working the Artisan Economy of Craft Beer, will be released in September. It is published by University of California Press
 

Invited Talks, Conference Presentations, Keynotes

Nancy López gave a keynote (8/14/24), “Intersectionality as Inquiry and Praxis for Advancing Health Equity for Girls, Women & Beyond,” at the Centers for Disease Control  (CDC) and Prevention, Office of Women’s Health, Office of Health Equity, as part of their 30-Year Anniversary Symposium on Women’s and Girls’ Health: Across Identities, Places, and Life Stages (virtual).

Grants, Fellowships, and other funding

Graduate student Suyent Rodriguez Candeaux received the Center for Regional Studies Graduate Student Fellowship and presented her working paper "The Public Image of Blackness: At the Nexus of Racism, Capitalism, and Democracy" at ASA's Section on Race and Ethnic Minorities and at the Association of Black Sociologists' Annual Conference.
Graduate Student Susana Echeverri Herrera was awarded the 2024-2025 Glenda Lewis Critical Race Scholar Award and the 2024-2025 Center for Regional Studies Graduate Student Fellowship.
Graduate Students Alejandro Tovar and Susana Echeverri Herrera are part of a group that received a Graduate Student Cluster Grant from the Feminist Research Institute a project on Border Feminisms. Their cluster aims to highlight, through a cross-disciplinary approach, how borders—literary, artistic, geographic, and symbolic—affect people’s lives, bodies, and existence. 
Graduate student Alejandra Lemus was awarded the Center for Regional Studies (CRS) Graduate Student Fellowship for 2024-2025
Graduate student Jaqueline Martinez received the GPSA Student Research Grant to help fund her masters thesis. 
Graduate student Jaqueline Martinez was selected as a graduate research fellow for El Puente. As part of this appointment, she received a scholarship and is currently leading a group of undergraduates in writing a research proposal.
Graduate student Davyd Setter was selected to participate in the Young Scholars Conference at Notre Dame University's Center for the Study of Social Movements.  Only a dozen Ph.D. students and early career scholars are selected for this conference each year.

Awards and Honors

Ranita Ray received the 2024 Society for the Study of Social Problems, Kathleen S. Lowney Mentoring Award.    

Public Facing Sociology

Nancy López spoke at a panel (7/11/23), "Reporting about the Afro-Latino Community Ahead of the Presidential Elections," at the National Association of Hispanic Journalist Conference, Los Angeles, CA.
Nancy López has done extensive outreach in relation to her work to improve data collection in federal agencies and beyond:
  1. 8/17/24: CNN interview with Victor Blackwell's show "First of All," which focuses on stories affecting communities of color on why we need to add an additional question on "What's Your Street Race?" as a Visual Status for federal and other organizational data collection for equity-minded policy and impact. https://f.io/MfhHvvDr
  2. 8/16/24: Negras Podcast, Cadena Radio Universidad de Puerto Rico, Centering Black Latinidad (58 min in Spanish), https://open.spotify.com/episode/7EHAg0sChTQ9msiw8xS6Nb?si=lhprRdi_RWexYvSCqLtfpg&t=829
  3. 8/8/24: NBC News quote about how 'Street Race'  may be a more accurate reflection of Latinos' racial differences https://www.nbcnews.com/news/latino/street-race-question-enhance-latino-data-ucla-rcna165809
  4. 8/7/24: Associated Press quote about how census categories misrepresent the 'Street Race" of Latinos, AfroLatinos https://apnews.com/article/census-street-race-latinos-3ac166ae741018ab77392c49e6e35eae
  5. 6/14/24: El Pais quote on "statistical gaslighting" and the negative consequences of asking about race/visual status and ethnicity/cultural heritage in one question. 
  6. English: https://english.elpais.com/usa/2024-06-14/afro-latinos-fear-being-erased-from-next-united-states-census.html
  7. Spanish: https://elpais.com/us/2024-06-14/los-afrolatinos-temen-ser-borrados-del-proximo-censo-de-estados-unidos.html
Ranita Ray published a piece in The Grade titled Why’s there so little coverage of everyday teacher racism? The “slow violence” of everyday teacher racism rarely gets the attention it warrants. 

Other news

Emily Castillo (PhD 2023) has been appointed as a postdoctoral fellow at Texas Christian University for their Race and Reconciliation Initiative.
Graduate student Preston Lowe accepted a full-time position at Pacific Lutheran University in Tacoma as a Visiting Professor of Sociology and Criminal Justice. He also got married on July 20th!