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Carlos Vargas-Ramos

Professor of Political Science, City University of New York

Centro Research Associate, Carlos Vargas-Ramos is working on the impact of migration on Puerto Rican political behavior, political attitudes and orientations.

He received his BA in political science and Economics from Rutgers University and also holds an MA in Hispanic Civilization from New York University, and a PhD in Political Science from Columbia University. Prior to joining the Centro’s staff, Carlos was a legislative aide at the New York City Council. He has also worked as a research assistant at the Barnard/Columbia Center for Urban Policy and Research as well as an enumerator and manager for the U.S. Bureau of the Census. He is a member of the Caribbean Studies Association and the Puerto Rican Studies Association.

Carlos Vargas-Ramos joined CENTRO as a researcher in public policy in 2001, charged with initiating CENTRO’s policy papers and reports series Policy Reports. Most recently he wrote “Recent trends in Puerto Rican Settlement and Segregation in the United States.”

A political scientist by training, Vargas-Ramos is co-editor, along with Anthony Stevens-Arroyo, of "Blessing La Política: The Latino Religious Experience and Political Engagement in the United States," published by Praeger in 2012. He is also working on a book manuscript ("Abroad and At Home: Puerto Rican Political Engagement in the Caribbean and in the United States") and editing an anthology on race ("Puerto Ricans and Race"). His most recent work will appear in "Puerto Ricans at the Dawn of the New Millennium," a volume co-edited with Edwin Meléndez, and to be published by the Center for Puerto Rican Studies in 2014.

His most recent peer-reviewed article “Puerto Ricans: Citizens and Migrants— A Cautionary Tale” appears in Identities: Global Studies in Identity and Power, 20(6): 665-688, (2013). Another article, “Migrating race: migration and racial identification among Puerto Ricans,” is forthcoming in Ethnic and Racial Studies.

Experience

  • –present
    Professor of Political Science, City University of New York