Emeriti/ae 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.
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.
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.
Advisory Committee
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.
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.
Viviana MacManus
Associate Professor, Critical Theory & Social Justice
B.A., ÆßÉ«ÊÓƵ; 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.
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.
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.
Dolores Trevizo
Madeline N. McKinnie Professor, Sociology
B.A., ÆßÉ«ÊÓƵ; 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.
Affiliated Faculty
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.
Mariška Bolyanatz Brown
Associate 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.
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 is Professor of Diplomacy & World Affairs and an affiliate of Latino/a & Latin American Studies at ÆßÉ«ÊÓƵ. He was honored with Occidental’s Sterling Award for Distinguished Scholarship and Teaching in 2022–23.
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.
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.
Mary J. Lopez
Elbridge Amos Stuart Professor of 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.
Carla M. Macal
Assistant Professor, Critical Theory and Social Justice
B.A. University of California, Irvine; M.A. University of Southern California; Ph.D. University of Oregon
Carla Macal is an interdisciplinary anti-colonial feminist scholar dedicated to community-engaged research addressing the intersections between state violence and inter-generational healing.
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.
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.
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.