Professor Aldana Co-Leads Cornell Law Conference on Treatment of Trauma in Immigration

Professor Raquel Aldana spoke at the Sept. 23 “Bridging the Scientific-Legal Divide in the Treatment of Trauma in Immigration” conference held at Cornell Law School with some virtual participation. Aldana organized the event with Professor Beth Lyon of Cornell. 

The conference gathered a group of legal and medical or health academics and professionals who are engaging in innovative collaborations in research, teaching or advocacy aimed at improving understanding of how they document, adjudicate and treat migrant trauma as part of immigration proceedings.

Aldana and Alea Skwara, postdoctoral scholar at UC Davis, spoke together as part of the “Documenting the Practice and Impact of Forensic Immigration Assessments” panel.

Farah Shaheen, M.D., an assistant clinical professor and primary care internist for UC Davis, took part in the “Innovations in Immigration Medical-Legal Collaborations” panel.

The keynote speaker was American University Washington College of Law Professor Juan Mendez, who served as U.N. Special Rapporteur on Torture from 2010 to 2016.

The program drew more than 150 participants, and is likely to be the first in a series of convenings.

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.