Cristian Paredes
Associate Professor, Department of Sociology, and Director of the Interdisciplinary Race and Ethnicity Program
How did studying ethnic and racial issues contribute to developing our own careers?
Theories on race, ethnicity, migration, and ethno-racial discrimination encouraged me to question and challenge commonsense meanings of race and racism. I learned that these meanings are unreliable and insufficient for understanding and explaining social phenomena that are more complex than they seem to be. Moreover, the complexity of ethnic and racial issues encouraged me to develop solid conceptual and analytic tools for investigating ethnic and racial issues in the US and other countries. Through my research, I have learned that these issues are not just a matter of different sociocultural understandings. In fact, ethnic and racial issues have significant consequences on the wellbeing of individuals in a society: from access to material resources to the likelihood of being accepted as a citizen with human rights.
Associate Professor, Department of Sociology, and Director of the Interdisciplinary Race and Ethnicity Program
How did studying ethnic and racial issues contribute to developing our own careers?
Theories on race, ethnicity, migration, and ethno-racial discrimination encouraged me to question and challenge commonsense meanings of race and racism. I learned that these meanings are unreliable and insufficient for understanding and explaining social phenomena that are more complex than they seem to be. Moreover, the complexity of ethnic and racial issues encouraged me to develop solid conceptual and analytic tools for investigating ethnic and racial issues in the US and other countries. Through my research, I have learned that these issues are not just a matter of different sociocultural understandings. In fact, ethnic and racial issues have significant consequences on the wellbeing of individuals in a society: from access to material resources to the likelihood of being accepted as a citizen with human rights.