Introducing: Rosa-Linda Fregoso

Rosa-Linda Fregoso is an interdisciplinary scholar and writer.  She is the author of six books and edited collections, and has over 50 essays published in print and online journals, and edited collections.  Fregoso is currently a 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 in the Américas. Her publications cover issues of human rights, feminicide, and gender violence, media and visual arts, race, cultural politics and aesthetics, in the Américas.

Fregoso received an interdisciplinary PhD (1982-87) from the University of California, San Diego. A former Chair of the LALS department, she is also faculty affiliate of Film and Digital Media, Social Documentation, Feminist Studies, and History of Consciousness. She is a member of the Scientific Commission of the Observatorio Nacional de Violência e Género (Universidade Nova de Lisboa); an International Research Collaborator with the Red de Investigadoras por la Vida y Libertad de las Mujeres in Mexico and Central America. She is 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.