UC Davis alumnus Cesar Favila (B.A. music, ‘06)—now assistant professor of musicology at UCLA’s Herb Alpert School of Music—has been given the Susan McClary and Robert Walser Fellowship in Music Studies from the American Council of Learned Societies (ACLS).

In addition to the fellowship, Favila was named a 2022 Mellon Emerging Faculty Leader (MEFL) by The Institute for Citizens and Scholars. The award is funded by the Mellon Foundation and given to “junior faculty whose research focuses on contemporary American history, politics, culture, and society, and who are committed to the creation of an inclusive campus community for underrepresented students and scholars.”

Grateful for the support, Favila presently researches the convents of pre-independence Mexico as cultural sites where literature, visual and musical arts worked together “to create an atmosphere of devotion so foreign to us now-a-days that it continues to cause wonder.” The research intersects with his book project, “Immaculate Sounds: The Musical Lives of Nuns in New Spain.”

Favila’s work as a mentor has also been recently recognized with a Mellon Mays Undergraduate Fellowship-Mentorship Award for mentoring Herman Chavez, an outstanding undergraduate at UCLA.