Associate Professor of Sociology Sylvia Zamora, a lifelong resident of South Gate, was honored in May 2023 by South Gate Mayor Maria del Pilar Avalos and the City Council for her contributions to the field of sociology, and to the Los Angeles community through Black and Brown coalition building.
Also in May 2023, Zamora was promoted to the rank of associate professor with tenure, and as the City of South Gate Proclamation states, “Nationally, only 26.5% of university faculty are tenured, meaning they are appointed indefinitely, and Latinos make up less than 5% of tenured faculty at universities in the United States.”
Zamora’s research and teaching focus on the impact of Latino immigration on social, political, and racial dynamics in American society, as well as the impact of ongoing demographic shifts on African American and Latinx relations. In 2022, she published “Racial Baggage: Mexican Immigrants and Race Across the Border (Stanford University Press, July 2022),” which delves into these topics examining how racial ideologies “travel” with migrants and how immigration shapes race relations and understandings of race in home and host countries.
Zamora’s consequential work illuminating issues that closely impact communities across the US has been recognized by the American Sociological Association and by LMU. She is a 2023 recipient of the LMU Ascending Scholar Award recognizing excellence and promise in faculty scholarship.
