In The Force of Witness (Duke University Press, 2023), Dr. Rosa-Linda Fregoso examines the contra-feminicide movement in Mexico and other feminist efforts to eradicate gender violence. Drawing on interviews, art, documentaries, and her years of activism, Fregoso shows how different forms of witnessing— from activist mothers, and experts in court cases to communal and scholar activist-citizens— are key to resisting feminicidal violence. She will be in dialogue with Dr. Sylvanna Falcón, Huerta Center director and Latin American and Latino Studies (LALS) associate professor. This free and public event is co-sponsored with the LALS Department.
Sponsored by: the Dolores Huerta Research Center for the Americas
Location: Bhojwani Room (University Center) | No advance registration is needed
Dr. Fregoso is an Oakland-based writer and Professor Emerita in Latin American and Latino Studies Department at the University of California, Santa Cruz.
Her publications include four academic books on film and two on human rights, and numerous articles on Latine culture, cinema, feminicide, and human rights. Her third book, meXicana Encounters: The Making of Social Identity on the Borderlands (2003) won the Modern Language Association’s first prize for best book in U.S. Latina cultural studies. In 2014, the American Studies Assocation awarded Dr. Fregoso the Angela Davis Prize for Public Scholarship. Her most recent book is The Force of Witness (Duke University Press, 2023).
Dr. Fregoso has worked as an expert witness in gender asylum cases since 2010. Born in Corpus Christi, Texas, Dr. Fregoso spent her formative years in Chicago, Corpus Christi, Tuxpan and Guadalajara, Jalisco. As an adult, she lived in Spain and Portugal.