Rosa-Linda Fregoso Bio

Rosa-Linda Fregoso is an interdisciplinary scholar and writer.  She is the author of six books and edited collections, and has numerous articles published in print and online journals, and edited collections.  Fregoso is currently the Interim Chair and Professor of Latin American and Latino Studies at the University of California, Santa Cruz and lives in Oakland, California. Fregoso’s research and teaching reflect her interest in human rights, culture and feminism.  Her publications cover issues of human rights, feminicide, and gender violence, media and visual arts, race, cultural politics and aesthetics, in the Américas.  As a member of the editorial collective, Fregoso writes for the online news site, The Feminist Wire. Fregoso received an interdisciplinary PhD (1982-88) from the Language, Society and Culture Program (in Communication and Literature) at the University of California, San Diego.  She has taught at the University of California, Santa Barbara; the University of California, Davis; the University of Southern California; and at the University of California, Santa Cruz since 2001 when she joined the department of Latin American and Latino Studies, as a Professor.  Currently the Interim Chair of the LALS department, she is also faculty affiliate of Film and Digital Media, Social Documentation, Feminist Studies, and History of Consciousness. She was a visiting researcher at Ober/Com Observatório da Comunicação in Lisbon Portugal, a member of the Scientific Commission of the Observatório Nacional de Violencia e Género in Lisbon, Portugal, and an International Research Collaborator with the Red de Investigadoras por la Vida y Libertad de las Mujeres in Mexico and Central America.  She is also a co-principal investigator of the Interdisciplinary Initiative for Human Rights in the Américas. A native of Corpus Christi Texas, Fregoso earned a bachelor in journalism from the University of Texas at Austin.  Prior to working in academia, she was a radio and television journalist. From 1977-79, she produced and hosted “Telecorpus,” a daily television-news program, broadcast in South Texas. From 1979-1982, she produced and hosted the weekly radio program, “The Mexican American Experience” for the Longhorn Radio Network and KUT-FM (an NPR affiliate). The Mexican American Experience was the first nationally syndicated radio program on Chicano/a issues to air on public and commercial radio stations. Fregoso’s expertise in human rights, gender violence, and media informs her public service. She provides expert opinion in gender asylum cases and consultation on gender violence in Latin America, and serves as advisor for documentary and multi-media projects.