The Adaljiza Sosa-Riddell Mentor Award is presented annually by the APSA Committee on the Status of Latinos y Latinas in the Profession to recognize the exemplary mentoring of Latino y Latina students and junior faculty each year. The award is named in honor of Adaljiza Sosa-Riddell, the first Latina to earn a PhD in political science. APSA was deeply saddened to learn of the passing of Dr. Sosa-Riddell in August 2023. The Committee on the Status of Latinos y Latinas intend to honor her legacy and contributions to both the Latino/a community and the discipline as a whole at the 2024 APSA Annual Meeting in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
Angela X. Ocampo is Assistant Professor of Mexican American and Latina/o Studies at the University of Texas at Austin. She specializes in the study of race, ethnicity, and politics, with a specific focus on the Latina/o/x community. Her research examines the political incorporation of racial, ethnic, and religious minorities both as every-day political participants and as leaders in American institutions. Her current book project Truly at Home?: The Politics of Inclusion and Latino Political Incorporation, which received APSA’s Best Dissertation Award in Race, Ethnicity and Politics, examines the notion of perceived belonging to U.S. society and its influence on political engagement among Latinas/os/xs. She has published numerous articles and chapters on Latina/o/x political behavior and representation. She is the recipient of multiple awards including the MPSA Latina/o Caucus Early Career Award and APSA’s Political Psychology Distinguished Junior Scholar Award. Her research has been supported by fellowships from the Ford Foundation, UC-MEXUS and the APSA Warren E. Miller Fund. She holds a BA with honors from Brown University and a PhD in political science from UCLA.
“Angela is the kind of person who uniquely goes above and beyond in not only her mentorship and guidance of graduate students, but also the critical and important element of cultivating a warm and welcoming space for newer scholars in the profession. I first met Angela at UT Austin’s PRIEC in November of 2022… I was lucky enough for her to be assigned as my poster discussant, and from there, her mentorship has blossomed and nurtured me into the scholar I am becoming. How funny that her research focuses on the politics of belonging, and how perfectly in unison that is with her value set of making others feel welcomed and belonging within the field,” writes Laura Uribe, a graduate student at the University of California, San Diego.
Uribe continues, “I remember calling my parents and explaining to them about this moment that I knew would be absolutely pivotal in my academic career. Only, Angela didn’t stop there. She kept checking in on me to see how I had been doing, academically and otherwise. She remembered I mentioned interest in studying Colombians in the US, given our shared heritage, and she invited me to join her and her sister (another fabulous and generous mentor) on a book chapter. And to this day, she has been a guiding light for me.”
The APSA Committee on the Status of Latinos y Latinas in the Profession once again thanks Dr. Ocampo for her tireless dedication to graduate students and offers its thanks for her commitment to bettering the political science discipline.