Mark Q. Sawyer, UCLA Political Scientist, REP Scholar, and Mentor, Dies

Dr. Mark Q. Sawyer was an internationally renowned scholar whose work on race and racism in Latin America, and racial attitudes in the United States earned him multiple awards and recognitions. Sawyer was a member of the APSR editorial board (2007-2012), the APSA Task Force on Political Science in the 21st Century (2006-2011) and served on numerous APSA committees including the Committee on the Status of Blacks in the Profession (2006-2009) and the development committee (2011-2014), among others. He was an alumnus of the APSA Minority Fellowship (1994-1995) and served as an APSA Mentor, and was a supporter of APSA Centennial Center and Diversity Funds. In 2007, Sawyer received the APSA Ralph J. Bunche Book Award for his book entitled Racial Politics in Post-Revolutionary Cuba.

Sawyer was a member of the faculty at UCLA since 1999, and co-founded the subfield of Race, Ethnicity and Politics (REP) in the UCLA Political Science department in 2006. Professor Sawyer made numerous important contributions in research, teaching, and mentoring students in both Political Science and African-American Studies. His areas of teaching and research included race, ethnicity and politics, race and politics in the Caribbean, comparative politics, American politics, international social movements, immigration and citizenship, African American political thought among others. Read more.