Light Carruyo

Light Carruyo is Associate Professor of Sociology and Latin American and Latino/a Studies. She received her BA from Oberlin College in Women’s Studies and Sociology and her PhD in Sociology from U.C. Santa Barbara. Her primary areas of research are the gendered and racial dimensions of nation building and economic development. She has carried out research in Venezuela, the Dominican Republic and the US. Dr. Carruyo is the author of Producing Knowledge, Protecting Forests: Rural Encounters with Gender, Ecotourism, and International Aid in the Dominican Republic, (Penn State University Press 2008), and her articles have appeared in journals such as Latin American Perspectives, and several edited volumes. Her teaching interests center around social justice and include race and racism in global context, Latina/os in the Americas, gender and development, globalization, and critical qualitative methods. Professor Carruyo’s course offerings include “Introduction to Sociology,” and “Introduction to Latin American and Latina/o Studies” at the introductory level. Her intermediate level courses include “Development and Social Change in Latin America” and “Cultures of Globalization.” She also teaches two advanced seminars: “Women, Culture, Development” and “Nation, Race, and Gender in Latin America and the Caribbean.”