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Rodolfo D. Torres

Professor of Planning, Policy & Design and Political Science
Ph.D. Claremont Graduate School
Phone: 
(949) 824-7680
Email: 
rodolfo@uci.edu
Office: 
218D Building Social Ecology 1
Specializations: 
urban political economy, urban education, educational inequality, state theory, and critical urbanism

EDUCATION

  • Ph.D. Administration and Policy Studies (Cognate Field: American Government and Political Economy) Claremont Graduate School
  • Visiting Graduate Student, Department of Economics, (Political Economy and Urban Economics) University of California, Riverside 
  • M.P.P. Public Policy Studies  Claremont Graduate School
  • B.A. Comparative Culture (Political Economy and Social Theory)—cum laude University of California, Irvine

RESEARCH STRANDS

Rodolfo Torres' theoretical and empirical interests represent a wide range of substantive topics: from Latinos in the US economy, poverty and urban education to racism and class relations in the US and Western Europe, the changing nature of work and schooling, and the fragmentation of everyday life under advanced capitalism. The main strand of Torres' intellectual and political project is to demonstrate that Marx's critique of political economy and a neo-Gramscian informed cultural studies (cultural political economy)  are powerful analytical tools for anyone interested in the future of cities, city schools, urban surveillance, decline of the public domain, class analysis, and the critique of capital. He has recently embarked on two new book-length research projects. A co-authored book (with Antonia Darder)  provisionally entitled Urban Education, Reform, and Real Utopias,  and a sole author of Principles of Mexican American Political Economy: Inequality, Classes, and the State

 RECENT HONORS

  • Daniel Stokols Award for Interdisciplinary Research, School of Social Ecology, 2010
  • Visiting Scholar, Cyprus University of Technology, April-May 2010
  • Honorary Research Staff, Faculty of Law,Business & Social Sciences, 2008-2010, University of Glasgow, Scotland
  • Co-Founder, Center on Inequality and Social Justice, UC Irvine (2007)
  • Visiting Professor of Political Economy, Department of Sociology, University of Glasgow, Scotland 2006-08
  • Adam Smith Research Foundation Fellow, University of Glasgow, Scotland, 2007.          
  • Keynote Speaker, “Rethinking, Once Again, Class and Inequality” International Sociological Association, Cyprus, May 2007

PUBLICATIONS

Books:

  • 2012 Kyriakides, C. and Torres R.D. Race Defaced: Paradigms of Pessimism, Politics of Possibility. Stanford: CA Stanford University Press
  • 2004   Darder, A, and Torres, R.D.  After Race: Racism and Multiculturalism. New York: NY, New York University Press.
  • 2004   Martin, E. and Torres, R.D.  Savage State: Welfare Capitalism & Inequality. Boulder: CO, Rowman & Littlefield.
  • 2000   Valle, V. M. and Torres, R. D.  Latino Metropolis. Minneapolis:  MN,  University of Minnesota Press

Books Under Contract:

  • 2012 Ibarra A. Torres R.D. (Eds)  Man of Fire:  Man of Fire:Writings of Ernesto Galarza. Urbana   and Chicago: IL, University of Illinois Press
  • 2012 Diaz, D. and Torres, R.D. (Eds)  Latino Urbanism.  New York: NY, New York University Press

 Edited Books Published:

  • 2010  Monahan, T. and Torres, R.D. Schools Under Surveillance. Piscataway: NJ,  Rutgers University Press.
  • 2009  Darder, A, Baltodano, M, and Torres, R.D.  The Critical Pedagogy Reader. New York: NY, Routledge (2nd Edition)
  • 2003  Darder, A, Baltodano, M, and Torres, R.D.  The Critical Pedagogy Reader. New York: NY, Routledge
  • 2003  Vazquez, F. H. and Torres, R. D.  Latino/a Thought: Culture, Politics, and Society. Boulder: CO, Rowman & Littlefield Publishers
  • 1999  Torres, R. D. and Katsiaficas, G.   Latino Social Movements: Theoretical and Historical Perspectives.  New York: NY, Routledge
  • 1999  Torres, R. D., Mirón, L. F. and Inda, J.  Race, Identity, and Citizenship: A Reader.  Cambridge: MA, Blackwell Publishers.
  • 1998  Darder, A. and Torres, R. D.  The Latino Studies Reader: Culture, Economy, and Society.  Cambridge: MA, Blackwell Publishers.
  • 1997  Darder, A. and Torres, R. D. and Gutierrez, H.  Latinos and Education: A Critical Reader.  New York: NY, Routledge.
  • 1997  Hamamoto, D. and Torres, R. D.  New American Destinies: A Reader in Asian and Latino Immigration.  New York: NY, Routledge.

 

  • Professor Torres is author/co-author of  nearly fifty book chapters and articles on a wide range of topics, including, but not limited to theories of the state,  racism and class relations, Chicano politics, economic restructuring, and urban theory.