UC Berkeley’s Department of Ethnic Studies Assistant Professor Chris Zepeda-Millán will present the ​UCSB MultiCultural Center’s first Race Matters Series of the quarter entitled “Weapons of the [Not So] Weak: Immigrant Mass Mobilization in the U.S. South” Tuesday, Oct. 13 in the MCC Theater at 6 p.m.

Survey research shows that foreign-born Latinos/as are among the least likely to take part in political activism, yet during the spring of 2006, up to five million immigrants and their allies took part in a historic national protest wave. 

Utilizing the case of Fort Myers, Fla., this presentation will examine why and how anti-immigrant legislation can motivate unconventional protest participants (e.g. soccer players, nannies and agricultural workers) to take action and utilize pre-existing community resources for the purpose of mass mobilization.

Born and raised in the East Los Angeles barrio, in 2011 Chris Zepeda-Millán became the first Chicano to receive a Ph.D. from the Department of Government at Cornell University.

In 2012, he received the national “Best Dissertation Award” from the American Political Science Association’s Section on Race, Ethnicity and Politics.

Professor Zepeda-Millán’s research interests include immigration, comparative racializations, social movements, urban politics and interdisciplinary research methods.

His work has been published in the American Journal of Political Science (AJPS), Political Research Quarterly (PRQ) and Politics.

For more information, please visit www.chriszepeda-millan.weebly.com. 

— Carol Dinh is the marketing coordinator for the UCSB MultiCultural Center.