Research Areas
As the first and longest-standing site of ethnic studies at UC Santa Cruz, we are dedicated to building understanding of the intersections of race, ethnicity, gender, sexuality, and class as part of interpreting the Latinx experience in the Americas and beyond. Our approach to regional area studies also emphasizes social and political transitions across space and time. These and other research strengths inform our work in all of the topical areas below. Learn more about our approach to research and see our latest research publications and research news on our Research overview page.
Culture, identity, and intersectionality
This research area focuses on the process of collective memory and meaning-making of Latin American and Latino existence, through which a diversity of cultures and identities take shape. For example, our faculty have studied Mexican immigrants in Chicago (Arredondo); Middle Eastern migration to Argentina (Balloffet); relations between Indigenous communities and European settlers in colonial South America (Erbig); historical memory in Peru (Falcón); gay and transgender communities in urban Amazonian Peru (Perez); Blackness, Whiteness, and racism in Brazil (Pinho); Latinxfuturism (Ramírez); consumer culture in El Salvador (Rivas); and feminisms throughout the hemisphere (Arredondo, Falcón, Ramírez, Taft).
Gabriela F Arredondo
- Title
- Associate Professor, Latin American & Latino Studies
Lily Balloffet
- Title
- Associate Professor
Jeffrey A Erbig
- Title
- Associate Professor
Sylvanna Falcon
- Title
- Professor
Justin Perez
- Title
- Assistant Professor
Patricia Pinho
- Title
- Professor
Catherine Sue Ramirez
- Title
- Professor & Chair
Cecilia M Rivas
- Title
- Associate Professor
Jessica K Taft
- Title
- Professor
Environmental justice
Faculty study how rapid environmental change across the Americas has impacted people’s lived experiences and physical environments, with a focus on relationships between people and animals in Central America (Balloffet), efforts to expose environmental degradation (Falcón), intersections of capitalism, colonialism, extractivism in Latin America (Leiva), and health vulnerabilities of farmworker communities in California (Carlos Martinez).
Lily Balloffet
- Title
- Associate Professor
Sylvanna Falcon
- Title
- Professor
Fernando I Leiva
- Title
- Professor
Carlos Martinez
- Title
- Assistant Professor
Hemispheric histories
We study how the history of the Western Hemisphere shapes everyday life, institutions, discourse, and practices in global, regional, and local contexts. Specific research topics have included Mexican migration to Chicago (Arredondo), the history of immigration from the Middle East to Argentina (Balloffet), cartographic history and its impacts on modern borders and mobility (Erbig), and pachuco and pachuca Mexican American culture in the 1940s (Ramírez).
Gabriela F Arredondo
- Title
- Associate Professor, Latin American & Latino Studies
Lily Balloffet
- Title
- Associate Professor
Jeffrey A Erbig
- Title
- Associate Professor
Catherine Sue Ramirez
- Title
- Professor & Chair
Human rights and social justice activism
Our research in this area furthers understanding and protection of human rights across the Americas, often leveraging community-engaged scholarship to conduct ethical field research on social justice issues from a decolonized perspective. Faculty have studied racial and ethnic diversity in activist coalitions (Arredondo); movements for women’s rights (Falcón); migration, carcerality, and abolition (Cinthya Martinez); LGBTQ activism (Perez); and youth activism (Taft).
Gabriela F Arredondo
- Title
- Associate Professor, Latin American & Latino Studies
Sylvanna Falcon
- Title
- Professor
Cinthya Martinez
- Title
- Assistant Professor
Justin Perez
- Title
- Assistant Professor
Jessica K Taft
- Title
- Professor
Labor and economic inequality
Economic shifts fueled by forces like liberalism, neoliberalism, and rapid globalization have led to impacts like enslavement, violence, dangerous working conditions, and widespread economic inequality across the Americas. Our faculty have studied issues including the harmful practices of business elites in Chile (Leiva) and Peru’s movement of working children (Taft).
Fernando I Leiva
- Title
- Professor
Jessica K Taft
- Title
- Professor
Borders, mobility, and citizenship
We study movement across borders and the ways in which borders are negotiated, constructed (Erbig), and enforced, parsing apart definitions of citizenship and noncitizenship and their effects on cultural processes and the construction of place-based identity. Our faculty have studied migrant policing, deportation and asylum (Carlos Martinez and Cinthya Martinez); assimilation processes (Ramírez); and Salvadoran emigrant voting and notions of nationality (Rivas).
Gabriela F Arredondo
- Title
- Associate Professor, Latin American & Latino Studies
Jeffrey A Erbig
- Title
- Associate Professor
Carlos Martinez
- Title
- Assistant Professor
Cinthya Martinez
- Title
- Assistant Professor
Catherine Sue Ramirez
- Title
- Professor & Chair
Cecilia M Rivas
- Title
- Associate Professor
Health and inequality
This area of research centers on how race, inequality, and other social and political factors influence health outcomes and concepts of wellness across the Americas. Our faculty have studied topics including the history of snake bite treatment (Balloffet), health consequences and sociocultural implications of the global war on drugs (Carlos Martinez), reproductive justice and the forced sterilization of migrants in detention (Cinthya Martinez), and HIV prevention and efforts to address AIDS-related discrimination in Peru (Perez).
Lily Balloffet
- Title
- Associate Professor
Carlos Martinez
- Title
- Assistant Professor
Cinthya Martinez
- Title
- Assistant Professor
Justin Perez
- Title
- Assistant Professor