Associate Professor of Latin American and Latino Studies (LALS) Sylvanna Falcón was recently elected president of Sociologists for Women in Society (SWS). Falcón’s term in the position will start at the beginning of 2024. Falcón says SWS is the most important professional organization for feminist sociologists in the country. The organization was founded in 1969, with a focus on supporting the success, leadership, and influence of women in the field of sociology and improving the social position of women in society through feminist sociological research and writing. SWS’s connection to UC Santa Cruz dates back decades: Sociology Professor Emerita Pamela Roby was instrumental in the organization’s founding.
Falcón joined the UC Santa Cruz faculty in the Department of Latin American and Latino Studies in 2010 and is also an affiliated faculty member in Sociology. She is the founder and director of UC Santa Cruz's Human Rights Investigations Lab and former director of the Dolores Huerta Research Center for the Americas. Falcón’s research focuses on global activist engagements with human rights, especially amongst feminists, and how this deepens the political significance of human rights today. She is a long-time member of Sociologists for Women in Society and has helped encourage UC Santa Cruz graduate students to apply for funding through the organization. Two Sociology and LALS graduate students won the organization’s very competitive Esther Ngan-ling Chow and Mareyjoyce Green Scholarship in recent years.
“I’ve been involved with SWS since I was a graduate student, and I’m honored to be elected to lead the organization,” Falcón said. “My winning this election shines additional light on our campus, and specifically the Division of Social Sciences, and I take that too as a great responsibility.”
