2022 Inaugural Graciela Olivárez Latinas in the Legal Academy ("GO LILA") Workshop
Raquel E. Aldana
Raquel E. Aldana joined UC Davis in 2017 to serve as the inaugural Associate Vice Chancellor for Academic Diversity with a law faculty appointment. She returned to full time law teaching in 2020.
Aldana is a graduate of Harvard Law School and began her teaching career in 2000 the William S. Boyd School of Law, University of Nevada, Las Vegas, before joining the McGeorge School of Law faculty in 2009.
Aldana brings extensive experience and commitment to the rule of law and human rights with a particular focus in Latin America. After private practice, she worked as a human rights lawyer for the Center for Justice & International Law (CEJIL) where she elevated emblematic cases involving gross human rights abuses to the Inter-American Commission and Court on Human Rights. From 2006 to 2007, Aldana was a Fulbright Scholar in Guatemala studying transitional justice and the role of victims to ameliorate impunity in criminal prosecutions. While in academia, Aldana has remained deeply involved in the Latin American region to advance human rights and the rule of law. She has worked in projects and programs such as in Nicaragua and gender violence, Guatemala and transitional justice, Chile and criminal justice, and Colombia and Mexico and refugees or asylum seekers. In 2008, she founded and directed the Inter-American Program at the McGeorge School of Law to prepare bilingual and inter-cultural lawyers in the representation of Spanish speaking clients in the US or abroad. The program included a fully bilingual and inter-cultural law program in Antigua, Guatemala and placements in Chile, Uruguay, Costa Rica, and Guatemala. She has served for nearly a decade as a Council Member and was elected as Chair in 2020 to the Latin American and Caribbean Council of the ABA’s Rule of Law Initiative (ROLI). In that role, she works closely with the Council and the LAC regional director to lead a staff of 50 in the securing of funds and execution of rule of law projects in more than ten countries of Latin America.
Aldana’s research has focused on transitional justice, criminal justice reforms and sustainable development in Latin America, as well as immigrant rights. Aldana teaches criminal law, asylum and refugee law and immigration law. She has also taught international human rights, lawyering for immigrants, “crimmigration,” criminal procedure, international labor law, Latin American comparative law, international public law, international human rights, statutes and regulations, and specialized practicum courses such as Central American migration corridor; Comparative Perspectives on Force Migration in the Americas and Humanizing Deportation.
Since starting at UC Davis, Aldana has received numerous awards including the American Bar Association Margaret Brent Women Lawyers of Achievement Award, the UC Davis Chancellor’s Achievement Award for Diversity and Community and the UC Davis Office of Research and Policy for Equity Ubuntu Award for Inspiring Social Change. She is an elected member of the American Law Institute (ALI) and previously served as co-president of the Society of American Law Teachers.
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