Roberta Villalon

Originally from Mar del Plata, Roberta Villalón was born during the last military regime in Argentina. With a genuine interest in the politics of social inequalities, Roberta has been committed to actively work for justice within and across geographical and social borders. Her background in political science and international relations, together with her expertise in Latin America and Latin American immigrants, has shaped her transnational sociological perspective distinctively. 

Her first authored book, Violence Against Latina Immigrants: Citizenship, Inequality and Community (2010, NYU Press), and the three-part special issue on The Resurgence of Collective Memory, Truth and Justice Mobilizations in Latin American Perspectives, with its related book, Memory, Truth and Justice in Contemporary Latin America (2017, Rowman & Littlefield), illustrate her global feminist politics. Journal articles like “Violence against Immigrants in a Context of Crisis: A Critical Migration Feminist of Color Analysis," in the Journal of Social Distress and the Homeless, and "Neoliberalism, Corruption and Legacies of Contention: Argentina's Social Movements, 1993-2006,” in Latin American Perspectives (2007, 34:2) also reflect how she has blended critical theory with transnational praxis. Similarly, book chapters such as "Latina Battered Immigrants, Citizenship, and Inequalities: Reflections on Activist Research" in Taking Risks: Feminist Activist Research in the Americas edited by Julie Shayne (2013, SUNY), and “Framing Extreme Violence: Collective Memory-Making of Argentina’s Dirty War” in Inequality and the Politics of Representation: A Global Landscape edited by Celine Pascale (2012, Pine Forge/Sage) are examples of not only the breadth and depth of her work, but also her commitment to put sociology in action.   

A Fulbright Scholar, Professor and Chairperson of the Sociology and Anthropology Department at St. John's University, New York City, Roberta is also affiliated with the Committee in Latin American and Caribbean Studies (CLACS), the Women's and Gender Studies Program, and the Global Development and Social Justice program at the university.  She is an active member and has served in various capacities in the Latin American Studies Association (LASA), the International Sociological Association (ISA); and Sociologists for Women in Society (SWS). 

Currently, Roberta is working on two projects.  On the one hand, since 2015, she is developing a transnational, interdisciplinary, and applied research project on Health Inequalities and Migration focusing on the Ecuadorean case. For this, Roberta was awarded a Fulbright Foreign Scholar Grant (2016-2017) and a Catholic Relief Services (CRS) Global Faculty Grant (2017-2018) to complete fieldwork in Ecuador and Spain. On the other hand, Roberta has recently begun to edit a special issue on "Activist Research in 21st Century Americas" for Revista CS, published by the Department of Law and Social Sciences of ICESI University (Cali, Colombia).  

Visit her website for updated information and her CV.