UCSB professor Denise Segura was named the ‘Outstanding Latina Faculty’ member of 2009.

Bestowed by the American Association of Hispanics in Higher Education, the Outstanding Latina Faculty in Higher Education award recognizes Segura’s research on social inequality, stratification and movement among Chicano and Latino populations in the United States. Segura, a sociology professor, is also an affiliated faculty member in the Dept. of Feminist Studies, the Dept. of Chicana/Chicano Studies and the Program in Latin American and Iberian Studies on campus.

Segura said she was honored to receive the AAHHE award for her research.

“To have your research acknowledged by your peers is very gratifying,” Segura said in a press release. “These are scholars who, like me, are doing research around issues of pressing concern to Latino populations.”

The AAHHE is a multidiscipline organization that serves as a leading research and advocacy group for Hispanic higher education issues, and additionally seeks to develop Latino/Latina faculty and senior administrators. The AAHHE award will be presented at the association’s annual conference in San Antonio later this week.

According to a UCSB press release, Segura’s research on Chicana and Mexican immigrant women workers is widely published, and her theories on “triple oppression” are extensively cited among related contemporary sociological studies. In addition, her analysis of “subjective mobility” between Chicana and Mexican immigrant workers – which examines the mechanisms driving the labor market and institutional inequalities – have placed her at the forefront of immigrant population research.

Segura is also president-elect of Sociologists for Women in Society, the largest organization of sociologists dedicated to feminist studies. Segura is the first scholar from UCSB and the first Chicana to become present-elect of SWS.