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Dr. Manuel Pastor is Professor of Sociology and American Studies & Ethnicity at the University of Southern California (USC). He currently directs the Program for Environmental and Regional Equity (PERE) at USC and USC's Center for the Study of Immigrant Integration (CSII). Working at the intersection of the academy and activism, he is the inaugural holder of the Turpanjian Chair in Civil Society and Social Change at USC and was awarded the 2012 Wally Marks Changemaker of the Year award from Liberty Hill.

One of his most recent books, Equity, Growth, and Community: What the Nation Can Learn from America's Metro Areas, co-authored with Chris Benner (UC Press 2015), argues how inequality stunts economic growth and how bringing together equity and growth requires concerted local action. His forthcoming book (April 2018), State of Resistance: What California’s Dizzying Descent and Remarkable Resurgence Mean for America’s Future, looks at the experience of the Golden State over the last five decades; arguing that "California is America fast forward", he draws lessons from structural changes and movement organizing in California to suggest some positive possibilities going forward.

Experience

  • –present
    Professor of Sociology, University of Southern California – Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences