UCLA professor of sociology Cecilia Menjívar today takes on her role as the 113th president of the American Sociological Society. She was named president-elect in 2020 and will hold the group’s top position until 2022.
Menjívar, who is the Dorothy L. Meier Professor of Social Equities, specializes in immigration, gender, family dynamics, social networks, religious institutions and broad conceptualizations of violence. She focuses on two main areas: the impacts of the immigration regime and laws on immigrants and the effects of personal, political and institutional violence on individuals, especially women.
The American Sociological Association, founded in 1905, is a nonprofit membership association dedicated to serving sociologists in their work, advancing sociology as a science and profession, and promoting the contributions to and use of sociology by society.
Under Menjívar’s chosen conference theme, “Bureaucracies of Displacement,” she is working with a local organizing committee from across universities in the Los Angeles region to schedule programming that highlights Los Angeles from a sociological perspective. The conference will also showcase a variety of Los Angeles-based research projects, including several by UCLA faculty.