Director's Initiatives
The appointed faculty director of the Research Center for the Americas has an opportunity to advance the research agenda and mission of the center. Below is information about the projects initiated by the RCA director.
Dr. Sylvanna M. Falcón (2018 – present)
Human Rights Investigations Lab
Launched in Fall 2019, the Human Rights Investigations Lab for the Americas is dedicated to offering digital verification support to non-governmental organizations, news outlets, and other advocacy partners that are conducting open source investigations. Housed in the Research Center for the Americas (RCA) at UC Santa Cruz, this lab harnesses digital technologies to address and confront human rights violations.
Watch video about the Lab's research of the Chilean crisis here
Brazil Online
Brazil is undergoing the deepest political crisis of its recent history following the impeachment process in 2016 of its first female president, Dilma Rousseff of the Workers’ Party.
The Research Center for the Americas (RCA) has created this new repository page to provide our community with access to the most pertinent news about this significant political crisis.
Journalism Project
The Research Center for the Americas is honored to be part of a yearlong journalism project titled Escuchar, Compartir, Comunidad (Listen, Share, Community) in partnership with KZSC radio and the Digital Nest in Watsonville, California for 2018-19.
Activist-in-Residence
The Research Center for the Americas at UC Santa Cruz is committed to bridging Santa Cruz County communities and the university through a rigorous engagement with public scholarship. This residency program is an ideal way in which to introduce new collaborative opportunities for students and faculty with community leaders.
Dr. Catherine Ramírez (2013 – 2018)
Student Photo Scholarship Contest
The Student Photo Scholarship Contest was designed to sustain the arts, recognize creativity, and encourage dialogue.
2019-2020: Chosen Family 
Stars and Sequoias
Vanessa Alarcon (Astrophysics)
Looking up to remember family members far away, and with nature towering over, remembering chosen family expands from nature to the cosmos
2018-2019: Love. Community. Home.
Divine
First Place
Emma McWaid (Art and Sociology)
2017-2018: Home & Mobility
Family Makes Home
First Place
Alonso Hernandez (Politics)
Nuestras Historias - CLRC/RCA Archives
Students in the Undergraduate Research Apprenticeship Program (URAP) established Nuestras Historias, the CLRC (now RCA) archive. Led by then CLRC Graduate Student Researcher (GSR) and LALS graduate student, Alina Ivette Fernandez, this multi-phase project trained students in archival construction, archival, oral history, and digital humanities methods, digital storytelling, and exhibition curation.
Andrew W. Mellon Foundation John E. Sawyer Seminar on Non-citizenship
The CLRC (now RCA) was honored to be part of Non-citizenship, UC Santa Cruz's 2016-17 Andrew W. Mellon Foundation John E. Sawyer Seminar on the Comparative Study of Culture.
Our seminar shed light on the tiered membership—what we call the spectrum of belonging—structuring societies in various places and periods and sharpens our understanding of the ways in which the mobility and regulation of non-citizens affect and transform notions of participation, belonging, and the social contract.
Dr. Sylvanna M. Falcón (2018 – present)
* Human Rights Investigations Lab* Brazil Online
* Journalism Project
* Activist-in-Residence
Dr. Catherine Ramírez (2013 – 2018)
* Student Photo Scholarship Contest
* Nuestra Historias - CLRC/RCA Archives
* Andrew W. Mellon Foundation John E. Sawyer Seminar on Non-citizenship
