Jotwell Spotlights Professor Aldana's Article on Latinas in the Legal Academy

University of Pittsburgh Law Professor Sheila Vélez Martinez wrote in Jotwell about an article coauthored by Professor Raquel Aldana. Titled “Latinas in the Legal Academy: Progress and Promise,” the article was published in the Harvard Latin American Law Review.

Vélez Martinez commended Aldana and her coauthors -- University of Hawaii Assistant Professor of Law Emile Loza de Siles, Seton Hall Law Professor Solangel Maldonado and Texas A&M Professor of Law Rachel F. Moran -- for “their collective efforts to showcase the powerful contributions of LILAs while emphasizing the need for continued advocacy, mentorship, and systemic change to ensure their future success and representation in the legal academy.”

 Vélez Martinez concluded that Latinas’ growing influence in the legal academy “reflects the promise of a more inclusive and diverse legal profession.” 

Raquel E. Aldana joined UC Davis in 2017 to serve as the inaugural associate vice chancellor for academic diversity with a law faculty appointment. She returned to full-time law teaching in 2020. Aldana’s research has focused on transitional justice, criminal justice reforms and sustainable development in Latin America, as well as immigrant rights. Before UC Davis, Aldana was a professor of law at McGeorge School of Law, and the William S. Boyd School of Law, University of Nevada, Las Vegas. She served as associate dean for faculty scholarship at McGeorge from 2013-17. She is a graduate of Arizona State University and Harvard Law School.