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CLRC names scholars of the year

Two professors of Latin American and Latino studies at UC Santa Cruz have been named Scholars of the Year by the campus's Chicano/Latino Research Center (CLRC).

Rosa-Linda Fregoso (above) and Patricia Zavella, this year's CLRC Scholars of the Year

Professors Patricia Zavella and Rosa-Linda Fregoso were honored at an award ceremony held at the Santa Cruz Museum of Art & History on Saturday, February 25.

The CLRC, which supports research and development among Chicano and Latino students and faculty at UCSC, recognized Zavella and Fregoso for their "exceptional scholarship, international standing, and dedication to social justice." Zavella and Fregoso are two of the 134 Latina professors in the UC system, which has nearly 8,500 faculty members, according to the CLRC.

Each recipient gave a lecture as part of the event, the theme of which was “Transnational, Transgenerational Feminisms: Women Working Together for Social Justice.” Fregoso's lecture, “We Want Them Alive! The Politics and Culture of Human Rights,” addressed the dramatic rise in violence against women in Mexico and the rest of Latin America. Zavella discussed the immigrant backlash in the United States in a lecture entitled, “Resistance to U.S. Nativist Discourse Through Transnational Popular Culture.”

The Scholar of the Year Award ceremony was the second event held to raise funds for the Undergraduate Research Apprenticeship Program (URAP), which supports the scholarship of undergraduate students by linking students with faculty mentors. On April 30, a donor reception and public lecture at the Mello Center in Watsonville will honor novelist Sandra Cisneros by presenting her with the First Annual Distinguished Gloria Anzaldua Scholar/Activist Award.