Department/College/UnitSocial Sciences Division

TitleAssociate Professor

AffiliationFaculty

Other UCSC Campus AffiliationDolores Huerta Research Center for the Americas
Anthropology Department
Critical Race and Ethnic Studies
Center for Agroecology & Sustainable Food Systems
Feminist Studies Department

Primary Office LocationMerrill College Academic Building
Merrill College

Office HoursThurs., 1:00 p.m. to 3:00 p.m. (Zoom, by appointment.)

Mail StopMerrill/Crown Faculty Services

Biography, Education and Training

Ph.D. Ethnic Studies, University of California, San Diego (USA)
M.A. Area Studies (Latin America), ILAS, University of London (UK)

Research Interests

Media and communication; transnationalism and migration; race and ethnicity; consumer cultures; modernity; global Latinidades; El Salvador; Central America; Southern Mexico.

Teaching Interests

Professor Rivas teaches in the areas of national identity, nationalism, media, consumer cultures, and modernity. Some of her courses focus specifically on contemporary Central American societies.

Selected Publications

• "Beyond Borders and Remittances: Discussing Salvadoran Emigrant Voting Rights," Urban Anthropology and Studies of Cultural Systems and World Economic Development (UAS). Special issue: Salvadoran Migration to the United States. Vol. 39, No. 1-2 (2010): 149-174.
• Salvadoran Imaginaries: Mediated Identities and Cultures of Consumption. New Brunswick: Rutgers University Press, 2014.
• "'El Salvador Works': The Creation and Negotiation of a National Brand and the Transnational Imaginary," in Borders in Service: Enactments of Nationhood in Transnational Call Centers. Kiran Mirchandani and Winifred R. Poster, Editors. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2016.
• "Julia's Liberation: Modernities and Trajectories of Salvadoran Women in Alberto Masferrer's Una vida en el cine," Aztlán: A Journal of Chicano Studies. Dossier: Global Latinidades: Toward a Supra-Latinx Studies. Vol. 48, No. 2 (2023): 147-159.