Contact: Sarah Nicholas

STARKVILLE, Miss.—Mississippi State University’s annual interdisciplinary lecture series—Race in America—this spring spotlights race, crime and victimization in the Latina/o/x community.

Presented by Anthony A. Peguero, a professor of sociology and criminology at Arizona State University, the event—“Latina/o/x Criminology”—is March 2 at 3 p.m. in Giles Hall, Room 224. The lecture is free and open to the public.

“It is paramount to build scholarship that spotlights the Latina/o/x population, a fast-growing group that is the United States’ largest racial minority, to broaden the field’s understanding of race, crime and victimization,” said Peguero. He will discuss the possible foundational framework to inform criminological research by integrating key tenets of LatCrit that provide a scaffolding to center race and racism with understanding crime, victimization and criminal legal system involvement.

Part of Peguero’s discussion will include highlighting ways racism impacts discrimination, cultural and linguistic devaluation, criminalization and racial profiling that shape and are shaped by levels of Latina/o/x crime, victimization and legal system involvement.

The Race in America lecture series is sponsored by the College of Arts and Sciences, the Department of Sociology and the African American Studies program.

Department of Sociology faculty members Margaret “Maggie” Hagerman, Kecia Johnson and Sanna King are coordinating this year’s event.

A division of the College of Arts and Sciences, more information about the African American Studies Program is available at www.aas.msstate.edu. For more about the Department of Sociology, visit www.sociology.msstate.edu. For complete details about the College of Arts and Sciences, visit www.cas.msstate.edu.

MSU is Mississippi’s leading university, available online at www.msstate.edu.