research
Curriculum Vitae [.pdf]
I am currently working on three main projects:
1) Grassroots High-Risk Activism
This research investigates how individuals sustain themselves in high-risk political situations. Sociologists have long investigated what kind of characteristics predispose individuals to high-risk activities, but fewer studies examine the process that individuals go through to sustain this activity. I undertook an eight-month mixed-method qualitative study with human rights workers in Bogota and Valle del Cauca, Colombia. I am currently writing articles and a book manuscript using this unique data. Parts of this project were supported by the American Sociological Association, the Tinker Foundation and the W. Burghardt Turner Foundation.
2) Indigenous Reform & Revolution
How are indigenous people sustaining a wide variety of tactics Latin America? This new project compares reformist tactics at the United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues with pre-figurative tactics in Colombia, Nicaragua, El Salvador and Bolivia.
3) Dis-aggregating Terrorism from Guerrilla war
Students of terrorism and guerrilla activity have often carried on studies of political violence without a clear analytic distinction between terrorism and guerrilla war. This project assembles comparative case studies to explain patterns in terrorism event-count data using emergent distinctions between different types of political violence.
—————————————
Previous Research:
Global Movement Coalitions
A group of developing countries within the World Trade Organization, called the G22, formed in 2003 to bring attention to important economic concerns of the Global South. This coalition building at the global level is instructive to the literature on social movement coalition building and strategies in a transnational context. This article examines coalition building among nation-states within the context of the WTO. Drawing upon existing trading blocs, the G22 are able to leverage attention away from the WTO consensus. The declining significance of the global institution is a result of the breaking of this consensus. This research was funded by the National Science Foundation and was published in Societies Without Borders.
—————————————
My Papers
Esparza, Louis Edgar. 2010. “God Can be Funny: Repertoires, Religion and Resistance.” Qualitative Sociology 33(1): 105 – 109.
Esparza, Louis Edgar. 2009. “Global Movement Coalitions: The Global South and the World Trade Organization in Cancun.” Societies Without Borders 4(2): 226-247.
Esparza, Louis Edgar and Pablo Lapegna. 2007. “The Limits of the Connected Lives Theory.” Sociological Forum 22(4): 606-611.
Book Reviews:
Esparza, Louis Edgar. forthcoming. “La Violencia en el Centro del Valle del Cauca, 1948-1965.” Revista de Estudios Colombianos.
Esparza, Louis Edgar. 2009. “To Rise in Darkness: Revolution, Repression, and Memory in El Salvador, 1920 – 1932.” Mobilization. 14(4):513-14.
Esparza, Louis Edgar. 2009. “Citizenship: Discourse, Theory and Transnational Prospects.” Contemporary Sociology 38(1): 60-61.
Other Professional Publications:
Esparza, Louis Edgar. 2009. “Demanding Rights, Withholding Peace: The Colombian Sugarcane Workers Strike.” In Critical Sociology Spring 2009.
Schwartz, Michael and Louis Esparza Edgar. 2008. “Social Movements” in Teaching the Sociology of Collective Behavior and Social Movements: A Curriculum Guide (3rd edition) by Wood, Lesley, Paul Almeida and Benita Roth (ed.). Washington, DC: American Sociological Association Teaching Resources Center.
Dreby, Joanna, Louis Esparza, Hilary Levey, Erynn Masi De Casanova, Owen Whooley and Elizabeth Williamson. 2007. “Discoveries: New and Noteworthy Research.” Contexts 6(4) 5-9.
Esparza, Louis, Hilary Levey, Erynn Masi de Casanova, Randa Serhan, and Owen Whooley. 2007. “Discoveries: New and Noteworthy Research.” Contexts 6(3): 6-9.
Schwartz, Michael and Louis Esparza. 2007. “Social Movements” in Teaching the Sociology of Peace, War, and Military Institutions: A Curriculum Guide (4th edition) by Ender, Morten G., Lynne Woerhle, and Ryan Kelty (ed.). Washington, DC: American Sociological Association Teaching Resources Center.
Esparza, Louis, Alwyn Lim and David Roelfs. 2006. “How We Became Intimate With Economic Sociology.” Accounts 5(2): 9-10.
Esparza, Louis and Roger Winn. 2003. Working By Consensus. University College of Citizenship and Public Service. Medford, MA.
Carlis, Adam, Louis Esparza, Elizabeth Monnin and Roger Winn. 2002. Tufts Students Against Discrimination.