Research / Areas of Interest: Political Sociology; Human Rights; Social Movements.
Background
Louis Edgar Esparza is Associate Professor of Sociology at California State University-Los Angeles and Fulbright Distinguished Scholar at the University of Brasília. His research has appeared in Global Labor Journal, Contemporary Justice Review, Society & Natural Resources, Partecipazione e Conflitto, and elsewhere. Louis is co-author of Human Rights: A Primer (Routledge 2016) and co-editor of Human Rights Of, By, and For the People (Routledge 2017). He served as Co-Chair of the Task Force on Contingent Faculty for the American Sociological Association and is a founding member of the Human Rights section.
Education
- PhD, Stony Brook University, 2010
- BA, Tufts University, 2003.
Current Research
- Human Rights & Civil Society: Funded by the Fulbright Interdisciplinary Network, this project explores civil society organizations in Brazil.
- Declining State Support in Higher Education: This project investigates the social, cultural, and economic effects of declining state support in academia. RA: Darron Cunanan.
- Human Rights Movements in Colombia: This project explores and theorizes high-risk activism in Bogota and Valle del Cauca.
Recent Publications & Presentations
2022
Esparza, Louis Edgar. forthcoming. “Contemporary First Amendment Politics.” Contexts 21(3).
Esparza, Louis Edgar. “Task Force on Contingent Faculty Final Report.” California State University, San Bernardino. NSF: Contingent Latinx Faculty in STEM, 30 April.
Esparza, Louis Edgar and Aditi Sapra. “Teaching the Sustainable Development Goals.” Alternative Futures & Popular Protest. University of Manchester. 14 June.
2019
Task Force on Contingent Faculty. “Contingent Faculty Employment in Sociology.” American Sociological Association. Washington, DC.
Esparza, Louis Edgar. “Human Rights: A Narrative Approach.” California State University, Los Angeles. Sociology Colloquium Series, November.
2018
Atkins, Celeste; Louis Edgar Esparza, Ruth Milkman, and Catherine Moran. “Organizing the Academic Precariat in the United States.” Global Labour Journal 9(1): 76-81.
Esparza, Louis Edgar. “Starving for Justice: Hunger Strikes, Spectacular Speech, and the Struggle for Dignity.” Contemporary Sociology 47(3):292-4.
2017
Esparza, Louis Edgar et. al. “Conditions of Cosmopolitanism: Conceptualizing Cosmopolitanism as in between the National and the Global.” Chuo Journal of the Faculty of Letters: Sociology / Socio Informatics 27: 1-12.
Smith, Keri Iyall, Louis Edgar Esparza, and Judith Blau (eds). Human Rights Of, By, and For the People: How to Critique and Change the US Constitution. Routledge.
Courses @ Cal State LA
- SOC 5030: Masters Capstone
- SOC 5021: Contemporary Sociological Theory
- SOC 5020: Classical Sociological Theory
- SOC 4830: Sociology of Human Rights
- SOC 4180: Crowd Behavior & Social Movements
- SOC 4120: Sociological Theory
- SOC 3910: Qualitative Research & Writing in Sociology
Recent Awards
- 2022. Fulbright Distinguished Scholar Award, Brazil.
- 2020. American Communities Fellow, CSULA.
ORCID
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