Contact Sylvanna Falcon
Education
B.S., Santa Clara University, 1995;
M.A., Sociology, University of New Mexico, 2000;
Ph.D., Sociology with doctoral emphasis
in Women’s
Studies, 2006, University of California Santa Barbara
“Urging all of us to open our minds and hearts so that we can know beyond the boundaries of what is acceptable, so that we can think and rethink, so that we can create new visions, I celebrate teaching that enables transgressions – a movement against and beyond boundaries. It is that movement which makes education the practice of freedom.” – bell hooks
Sylvanna M. Falcón
Lenore Tingle Howard '42 Assistant Professor of Sociology
Joined Connecticut College: 2007
Specializations:
- Race/ethnic relations
- Gender & Feminism
- Human Rights
- United Nations
- Globalization
Sylvanna Falcón joined the Sociology department faculty in the Fall of 2007.
With experience in teaching courses on race/ethnic relations, gender theory, globalization, and field research methods, she arrived to Connecticut College after graduate study and teaching at the University of California Santa Barbara.
Her research focuses on the ways feminists have impacted the global discourse of racism by using the United Nations world conferences and related mechanisms to make an impact. Her current research investigates the organizing strategies of U.S. racial justice groups that are engaged in the February 2008 U.N. review of the U.S. government’s compliance report with the racial discrimination treaty. Having ratified the International Convention to Eliminate all Forms of Racial Discrimination (ICERD) in 1994, the U.S. government is required to submit periodic reports to the United Nations Committee to Eliminate Racial Discrimination (CERD). To date, the U.S. has submitted two reports for U.N. review. In sum, Falcón plans to research how local U.S. groups navigate global politics and how the global discourse of racism is impacted by local understandings of the topic, especially by women of color.
She has published in the subject of human rights, the U.S.-Mexico border, violence against women and the United Nations. She is working on her first book manuscript about how women are reclaiming the U.N. and its processes in the aftermath of both the tremendous U.N. successes from the 1990s (i.e., World Conference on Human Rights in Vienna, 1993; the International Conference on Population and Development in Cairo, 1994; Fourth World Conference on Women in Beijing, 1995) and the rise of right-wing governments globally.
Falcón is the recipient of the University of California President’s Postdoctoral Fellowship and will be on leave from Connecticut College for the 2008-2009 school year.
Since 2006, Falcón has presented at several conferences and has made the following presentations:
September 2007: Invited speaker to Drew University in New Jersey. “Reluctant Compliance: The U.S. reports to the U.N. Committee to Eliminate Racial Discrimination.”
August 2007: American Sociological Association Annual meeting held in NY, NY. Conference paper: “Living in a Space of Exception: The U.S. Report to the United Nations Committee to Eliminate Racial Discrimination.”
April 2007: “Speaking to each other and not past each other: Bridging Ethnic Studies and Sociology.” Pacific Sociological Association annual meeting, Oakland, CA.
January 2007: “Feminist Reflections on Collective & Transnational Struggles,” University of California Institute for Mexico and the United States (UC MEXUS) seminar on gender and transnationalism, University of California Riverside.
April 2006: “Cross-Border Dialogues: Feminists from the Americas Discussing Transnational Alliances and Struggle.” Pacific Sociological Association annual meeting, Hollywood, CA.
April 2006: “But aren’t we the most free?” Pacific Sociological Association annual meeting, Hollywood, CA.
February 2006: “Uncovering the U.S. Dynamic in the Politics of Racism and Anti-racism at the United Nations.” Anti-Racist Discourses: Theory and Comparison, an International Scholarly conference at Georgia State University, Atlanta, GA.
She will be making the forthcoming presentations in 2008:
April 2008: “Teaching Affirmative Action: Upsetting the Meritocracy Generation,” Pacific Sociological Association annual meeting, Portland, OR.
April 2008: Organizer and Discussant, “Situating Transnational Feminism in the Americas,” Pacific Sociological Association annual meeting, Portland, OR.
September 2008: “The NGO Response Regarding the U.S. Reports to the United Nations Committee to Eliminate Racial Discrimination.” First International Sociological Association Forum, Barcelona, Spain.
Reprint and Updated: “Securing the Nation Through the Violation of Women’s Bodies: Militarized Border Rape at the US-Mexico Border.” Pp. 119-129 in Color of Violence, edited by INCITE! Women of Color Against Violence. Boston: South End Press, 2006.
“Youth and Criminalization.” Position paper for the Women’s Institute for Leadership Development (WILD) for Human Rights for the 2001 World Conference Against Racism in Durban, South Africa, 2001.
Falcón has these professional organization memberships and affiliations: American Sociological Association – Academic Council on the United Nations System.
Visit her personal Web site and the Sociology department site.