How large is the current undocumented population living in the U.S.?  What role does media play in shaping public opinion and policy surrounding immigration reform?  Are there common factors which prevent some low-income students from making a successful transition to higher education while others, faced with the same obstacles and opportunities, flourish?

The second lecture in the three-part Social Sciences Expert Speaker Series offers the UCI and local community an opportunity to dialogue with immigration and population experts to learn how UCI social sciences research is making a difference. 

“Changing Perceptions, Making Connections: Social Scientists Explore New Findings in Immigration & Population Research”
with UCI immigration and population experts:
Frank D. Bean, Sociology and Economics
Leo Chavez, Anthropology 
Cynthia Feliciano, Chicano/Latino Studies and Sociology

Thursday, March 18, 2010
7:00-9:00 p.m.
Social and Behavioral Sciences Gateway, Room 1517 (bldg 214 on campus map)

The Social Sciences Expert Speaker Series is free and open to the public. Please RSVP to Rosemarie Swatez, rswatez@uci.edu or 949.824.2511.

Frank D. Bean, UCI sociology and economics Chancellor’s professor, has studied the U.S. immigrant population extensively for the past 25 years with a focus on integration socially, economically, geographically, and politically. He is a recent co-recipient of a $1.34 million grant from the National Institute of Child Health and Development that will be used to compile a new dataset and conduct research on the health of immigrants living in the United States.  The resulting information will be made publicly available for future studies on the effects of immigration and incorporation on health outcomes of immigrants in the United States.  He is also working on a six-year study, funded by the Department of Homeland Security, to develop new methods for collecting and reporting data on the unauthorized population living in America, the results of which will lead to more accurate numbers for immigration policy developers.   Learn more about Bean’s research and accomplishments online. 

Leo Chavez, anthropology professor, has authored multiple studies and books on the immigrant population currently living in the U.S.  His most recent book, The Latino Threat: Constructing Immigrants, Citizens and the Nation, focuses on media portrayal of Latinos as a threat in public discourse.   By working to dispel assertions that Latinos don’t want to learn English, they don’t want to learn and engage in American culture, they want to remain isolated and separated from the larger U.S. society, and they are engaged in a generations-long conspiracy to take over the United States, he sheds light on the complexities that come with immigration reform and suggests that a path to citizenship may be a positive factor for social integration. Learn more about Chavez's research and accomplishments online.

Cynthia Feliciano, Chicano/Latino studies and sociology associate professor, studies race, ethnicity and minority stereotypes and relations as well as migration and immigration.  She has authored multiple studies including a recent featured article in Social Science Research which showed that Internet daters tend to observe racial stereotypes when seeking a mate. She is currently working on a Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation-funded research project aimed at discovering common factors that prevent some low-income students from making a successful transition to higher education while others, faced with the same obstacles and opportunities, flourish.  The project is part of a larger five-year study being conducted by the University of California's All Campus Consortium on Research for Diversity (UC ACCORD).   Learn more about Feliciano's research and accomplishments online.