Sociology Faculty

Summary of Expertise

My areas of expertise span immigration, social inequalities, and public policy. I employ social demographic, statistical, and geographic information systems methods and tools. I analyze administrative, Census, survey, and qualitative data to answer research questions about our social world. Before graduate school, I worked as a research associate at the Urban Institute in Washington, DC to examine immigration policy, criminal justice, low-income working families, and workforce and youth development. 

Research Interests

I am particularly interested in the role local contexts play in creating and cementing divergent outcomes in immigrant communities. In my dissertation research, I extend my interests in how places accentuate existing inequalities. In three essays, my dissertation examined (1) the role of local demographic factors as determinants of deportation contexts; (2) whether variation in local deportation regimes sharpened existing inequalities via differential rates of housing instability; and (3) why certain places prove most well-equipped to identify crimes targeting immigrants in need of legal services. 

Biography, Education and Training

I completed my sociology Ph.D. in 2018 from Stanford University, where I was a Fellow at Stanford's Center for Poverty and Inequality and Graduate Research Fellow at the Center for Comparative Studies in Race and Ethnicity (CSRE). Prior to graduate school, I received my BA at DePauw University (History; Conflict Studies) and an MPA at Indiana University, Bloomington-SPEA (policy analysis; economic develpment). I grew up in Guanajuato, México and Chicago, IL; and I live in Santa Cruz with my wife, Natasha, and our sons, Miguel and Dominic.

Honors, Awards and Grants

• Ford Foundation Dissertation Fellow (2017-2018)
• Academic Achievement Award, Office of the Vice Provost for Graduate Education, Stanford University (2018)
• Ford Foundation Predoctoral Fellow (2014-2017)
• Center for Comparative Studies in Race & Ethnicity Graduate Fellowship (2012-2015)

Selected Publications

• 2018 Mattingly, M. J., and Pedroza, J. M. “Convergence and Disadvantage in Poverty Trends (1980–2010): What is Driving the Relative Socioeconomic Position of Hispanics and Whites?” Race and Social Problems 10(1):53-66.
• 2017 Jiménez, Tomás, Julie Park, and Pedroza, J. M. “The New Third Generation: Post-1965 Immigration and the Long March of Assimilation.” International Migration Review (Fall):1-40.
• 2013 Pedroza, J. M. “Removal Roulette: Secure Communities and Immigration Enforcement in the United States (2008-2012).” Book chapter in Outside Justice, Springer.
• 2010 Chaudry, A., R. Capps, J. M. Pedroza, R. M. Castañeda, R. Santos, M. Scott. “Facing Our Future: Children in the Aftermath of Immigration Detention.” The Urban Institute.

Selected Presentations

• Population Association of America (panel: 2013-2018; poster: 2016, 2017)
  • Poster Award Winner, 2017
• Law and Society Association (panel: 2014, 2016, 2018)
• American Sociological Association (roundtable: 2014)

Teaching Interests

My teaching interests include quantitative methods, immigration to the United States, and topics related to social inequalities and public policy.