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 honored 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. Drs. Ricardo Ramirez and Jesse Acevedo were awarded for exemplary mentoring of undergraduate students. Dr. Andrea Silva was awarded for exemplary mentoring of graduate students. Drs. Ines Valdez and Tony Carey were awarded for exemplary mentoring of junior faculty.
Jesse Acevedo is an Assistant Professor of Political Science at the University of Denver. He obtained his Ph.D. in political science from the University of California, Los Angeles in 2016 and is a past recipient of the APSA Fund for Latino Scholarship. His research focuses on political economy, democratization, and international migration, with a particular interest in the political economy of emigration and remittances in developing countries. His current research examines the political consequences of emigration and remittances on political attitudes and behaviors in Central America.
“Dr. Acevedo has been a strong and effective mentor of Latine students in our department at the University of Denver. This has included both formal and informal roles. Formally, Dr. Acevedo served as a First-Generation Faculty Mentor and has supervised a number of senior honors theses, including working with multiple Latine students on these projects. Informally, I have observed Dr. Acevedo spending countless hours meeting with students to talk through statistics and research design and to discuss graduate school and career goals. He has also been an outspoken advocate for Latine students on numerous occasions in departmental meetings,” writes Sara Chatfield, a faculty member at the University of Denver.
Chatfield continues, “One particularly notable example is Dr. Acevedo’s mentorship of Bela Vilela, a political science and economics major who was a founding member of the Brazilian Student Association at the University of Denver. Dr. Acevedo chaired Bela’s committee for her senior honors thesis on misperceptions in public opinion in Brazil, for which she earned high honors. He then worked with her to apply to the Midwest Political Science Association Annual Conference in spring of 2024, where she presented a poster of her research. Dr. Acevedo also worked with Bela on her graduate school applications and provided mentorship on the process of deciding between programs. She is headed to Rice for a PhD in Political Science this coming fall. This example is indicative of the time and care Dr. Acevedo puts into mentoring undergraduate students – and the positive results of this mentorship.”
The APSA Committee on the Status of Latinos y Latinas in the Profession once again thanks Dr. Acevedo for his tireless dedication to undergraduate students and offers its thanks for his commitment to bettering the political science discipline.