It is with great honor to share the news that Sociology graduate Jimi Valiente-Neighbours, has been selected as the Social Sciences Division nominee for the 2017 Steck Family Prize for Dissertation Excellence. Highlighted by Sheldon Kamieniecki, Dean of the Social Sciences Division, “Valiente-Neighbours' dissertation was selected by the division's review committee for its empirical and theoretical contributions, its broader impacts, and the originality of the work”. Jimi was selected from fifteen applicants to represent the division and is one of five candidates to be considered for the campus-wide Steck Family award, which will be announced on May 5th.
In addition to this nomination, Jimi’s academic work has been recognized for its groundbreaking scholarly contributions. Her work has received the UC President’s Dissertation Year Fellowship, a research grant from the UC Center for New Racial Studies, and the Eugene Cota-Robles Fellowship, all of which funded Valiente-Neighbours’s dissertation writing and travel where she conducted 80+ interviews with Filipino veterans in California, Hawai’i, and the Philippines recording their stories and preserving a valuable piece of history.
Jimi’s dissertation titled, ‘Racialized Bodies and Phantom Limb Citizenship: The Case of the Filipino World War II Veterans,’ examined the embodiment of citizenship among the Filipino World War II veterans to whom the U.S. promised American citizenship upon recruitment, but which was rescinded after the war. Jimiliz Valiente-Neighbours is currently an Assistant Professor of Sociology at Point Loma Nazarene University.
Join us in congratulating Dr. Jimiliz Valiente-Neighbours for this outstanding recognition.
