Cecilia Menjívar, born and raised in
El Salvador
El Salvador, officially the Republic of El Salvador, is a country in Central America. It is bordered on the northeast by Honduras, on the northwest by Guatemala, and on the south by the Pacific Ocean. El Salvador's capital and largest city is S ...
, is an American
sociologist who has made significant contributions to the study of
international migration
International migration occurs when people cross state boundaries and stay in the host state for some minimum length of the time. Migration occurs for many reasons. Many people leave their home countries in order to look for economic opportunities ...
, the structural roots of inequalities, state power, gender-based violence against women, and legal regimes.
Menjívar is currently a professor of sociology at the
University of California, Los Angeles
The University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Los Angeles, California, United States. Its academic roots were established in 1881 as a normal school the ...
where she is the Dorothy L. Meier Social Equities Chair.
Education
Menjívar received a Bachelor of Arts in Psychology and Sociology from the
University of Southern California
The University of Southern California (USC, SC, or Southern Cal) is a Private university, private research university in Los Angeles, California, United States. Founded in 1880 by Robert M. Widney, it is the oldest private research university in ...
in 1981, and a Master of Science in International Education from the same university in 1983. Menjívar then completed her doctoral studies at the
University of California, Davis
The University of California, Davis (UC Davis, UCD, or Davis) is a Public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Davis, California, United States. It is the northernmost of the ten campuses of the University ...
graduating in 1992 with a PhD in sociology. Menjívar completed post-doctoral fellowships at the
University of California, Berkeley
The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California), is a Public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Berkeley, California, United States. Founded in 1868 and named after t ...
and
RAND Corporation
The RAND Corporation, doing business as RAND, is an American nonprofit global policy think tank, research institute, and public sector consulting firm. RAND engages in research and development (R&D) in several fields and industries. Since the ...
.
[C Menjívar CV](_blank)
soc.ucla.edu
Career
Menjívar worked at
Arizona State University
Arizona State University (Arizona State or ASU) is a public university, public research university in Tempe, Arizona, United States. Founded in 1885 as Territorial Normal School by the 13th Arizona Territorial Legislature, the university is o ...
from 1996 to 2015, initially as an assistant professor before becoming an Associate Professor and finally Cowden Distinguished Professor and associate director in the School of Social and Family Dynamics. Menjívar then moved to the
University of Kansas
The University of Kansas (KU) is a public research university with its main campus in Lawrence, Kansas, United States. Two branch campuses are in the Kansas City metropolitan area on the Kansas side: the university's medical school and hospital ...
where she was Foundation Distinguished Professor in the Department of Sociology and co-director of the Center for Migration Research. Since 2018, Menjívar has been Professor and Dorothy L. Meier Social Equities Chair in the Department of Sociology at the University of California, Los Angeles.
She was elected President of the
American Sociological Association
The American Sociological Association (ASA) is a non-profit organization dedicated to advancing the discipline and profession of sociology. Founded in December 1905 as the American Sociological Society at Johns Hopkins University by a group of fi ...
2021–2022.
Reception
Menjívar's first book, ''Fragmented Ties'', received the 2001 William J. Goode Outstanding Book Award from the American Sociological Association's Section on Family. Her second book, ''Enduring Violence'' received the
Distinguished Scholarship Award from the
Pacific Sociological Association, the Mirra Komarovsky Book Award from the
Eastern Sociological Society, and the Hubert Herring Best Book Award from the Pacific Council on
Latin American Studies
Latin American studies (LAS) is an academic and research field associated with the study of Latin America. The interdisciplinary study is a subfield of area studies, and can be composed of numerous disciplines such as economics, sociology, histor ...
. Her articles also have been recognized with awards and, like her work in general, have been read around the world.
Selected works
*Menjívar, Cecilia. ''Fragmented Ties: Salvadorian Immigrant Networks in America''. University of California Press (2000).
*Menjívar, Cecilia, Nestor P. Rodríguez. (Eds.) ''When States Kill: Latin America, the US, and Technologies of Terror''. University of Texas Press (2005).
*Menjívar, Cecilia. ''Enduring Violence: Ladina Women's Lives in Guatemala''. University of California Press (2011).
*Menjívar, Cecilia and Daniel Kanstroom. ''Constructing Immigrant "Illegality": Critiques, Experiences, and Responses'', Cambridge University Press (2014)
*Menjívar, Cecilia. Leisy Abrego and Leah Schmalzbauer. ''Immigrant Families''. Polity, (2016).
*Menjívar, Cecilia, Marie Ruiz and Immanuel Ness. (Eds.) ''The Oxford Handbook of Migration Crises''. Oxford University Press (2019).
Notes
{{DEFAULTSORT:Menjivar, Cecilia
Year of birth missing (living people)
Living people
American women sociologists
20th-century American social scientists
21st-century American social scientists
University of Southern California alumni
University of California, Davis alumni
University of California, Berkeley fellows
Arizona State University faculty
University of Kansas faculty
American sociologists
21st-century American women