View Cecilia Menjívar’s website

Sociologist Cecilia Menjívar has made significant contributions to the studies of international migration, the structural roots of inequalities, state power, gender-based violence against women, and legal regimes. Her work focuses on the way state power manifests through legal regimes, bureaucracies, and formal institutions in the microprocesses of everyday life in various contexts. Menjívar has studied extensively the impacts of immigration laws and multisided violence towards women, particularly in the contexts of gender and family dynamics and religious institutions. She has authored, co-authored, or co-edited six books about the experiences of immigrant families across Latin America. Menjívar earned her PhD in sociology from the University of California, Davis, and she is currently Dorothy L. Meier Social Equities Chair and a professor of sociology at the University of California, Los Angeles.

Watch Menjívar’s remarks at the 2023 AAPSS Fellows Induction below or on YouTube.