Lilia Soto, Ph.D.
Associate Professor
Chicana and Chicano Studies
San Diego State University
Lilia Soto is an associate professor in the Department of Chicana and Chicano Studies at San Diego State University. Prior to joining SDSU, she was an associate professor of American Studies and Latina/o Studies at the University of Wyoming where she served as the director of the Latina/o Studies Program and as the Associate Director of the School of Culture, Gender, and Social Justice. She received her Ph.D. in Comparative Ethnic Studies from the University of California, Berkeley in 2008. From a historical and ethnographic position, her research focus is on comparative/relational race and ethnic studies, transnational migration, identity formation and the interconnectedness of time, place, age, gender and sexuality. Soto’s first book titled, Girlhood in the Borderlands: Mexican Teens Caught in the Crossroads of Migration (New York: New York University Press, 2018), couples the temporalities of migration with age, gender, and sex as intersecting categories of analyses and the bearing these have on the lived experiences of Mexican teenage girls raised in transnational families. Her second research project centers unlikely characters in four different movements in the Napa Valley narrative. This gendered, raced, and classed account alters official narratives of gender, land and mapping, migration, wine, and climate change. Concurrently, she is writing an article on Mexican, Chicanx, Latinx young women coming of age in the Napa Valley in the 1990s where race, gender, and violence is centered at a local high school. Soto has been the recipient of the NEH Summer Seminar, the Ford Foundation Postdoctoral Fellowship, and the University of California President’s Postdoctoral Fellowship.
Lilia's involvement in NACCS dates back to 2004 as a participant and conference participant. She served as Secretary 2018 to 2021. As Chair-Elect, I am looking forward to continuing the legacy of finding portals-openings-within the field where we can be more inclusive. Portals or openings include social, political, theoretical, practical directions where we can take the field of Chicana and Chicano Studies.
Term: 3 years (chair-elect, chair, and past-chair)
Duties:
The Chair-Elect will be directly elected by the general membership to serve for one year before succeeding to become the National Chair. In the Chairperson's absence, the Chair-Elect of NACCS shall perform the duties of the National Chair. The Chair-Elect also serves as the Program Chair for the annual NACCS conference and the Nominations Committee.
In the event of the National Chair’s resignation, inability, refusal to serve or perform the duties of the position, a vacancy shall be declared and the Chair-Elect shall succeed as the National Chair early on. If this occurrence takes place in the first half of the National Chair’s term, then a special election will be held to fill the Chair-Elect position upon its vacancy. If the vacancy takes place after six months into the term, then the Chair-Elect position will remain vacant until the next scheduled election for the position and the new National Chair will serve until the end of her/his regular term. In the event that the Chair-Elect is unable or unwilling to succeed to the position of National Chair, then the National Board shall select a representative to perform the duties of the National Chair for the unexpired portion of the term.
To be eligible to run for this office, a candidate for Chair-Elect must: (1) be a member in good-standing; (2) have been a member continuously for the previous four (4) years before assuming office; (3) have had significant, active participation in NACCS; (4) have provided a significant, active contribution to Chicana & Chicano Studies; and (5) have contributed to advance the interests and needs of the Chicana & Chicano community. This person cannot hold more than one National Board office in NACCS at the same time, nor run consecutively for this office.
The chair-elect will then take on the responsibilities of the Chair and then the Past-Chair.