The 2025 Latinxs & the Environment Conference took place on Oct. 24 at the Barbara and Art Culver Center of the Arts in downtown Riverside. The event was co-hosted by UC Riverside and UC Berkeley and organized by UCR’s Graduate Division. This year’s theme was “Environmental Research and Social Change-Connecting the Latino Community with
Future Generations.”

UC Riverside alumni Riverside Mayor Patricia Lock Dawson (’88) welcomed the crowd, while County Supervisor Jose Medina (’74) led the keynotes. Other speakers included UC Riverside’s Rodolfo H. Torres and UC Davis’s Samuel Sandoval Solis.

This conference is a UC-wide initiative aimed at promoting and encouraging research in environmental fields and in the Latinxs community. The Latinxs & the Environment initiative, or LEI, is funded by a $342,000 grant from the UCOP Hispanic Serving Institution Doctoral Diversity Initiative and aims to showcase student research impacting and supporting Latinx communities.

The evening was structured around panels, student poster presentations, and an award ceremony. Guests were also treated to a dinner and a mariachi performance.

UCR ethnic studies Ph.D. candidate, Jenni Martinez, was presented with the Audience Choice Award for her poster presentation at the conference. Her presentation was titled “Amordidas: Preserving Foodways and Cultural Memory in the Wake of Deportation.”

Martinez’s complete abstract can be found on the 2025 Latinx & the Environment Conference Program, along with other event details.

This year’s conference was the last of two, the first occurring in 2023. Although the grant doesn’t allow for any future conferences, the LEI will continue at UCR in collaboration with sister campuses, UC Berkeley and UC Davis, who also have LEI chapters.