Manuel Pastor

Dr. Manuel Pastor is Professor of American Studies & Ethnicity at the University of Southern California where he also serves as Director of USC’s Program for Environmental and Regional Equity (PERE) and co-Director of USC’s Center for the Study of Immigrant Integration (CSII).

Founding director of the Center for Justice, Tolerance, and Community at the University of California, Santa Cruz, Pastor holds an economics Ph.D. from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst. In recent years, his research has focused on the economic, environmental and social conditions facing low-income urban communities in the U.S., resulting in articles published in Economic Development Quarterly, Review of Regional Studies, Social Science Quarterly, Journal of Economic Issues, Journal of Urban Affairs, Urban Affairs Review, Urban Geography, and elsewhere. He has also conducted research on Latin American economic conditions, with articles published in journals such as International Organization, World Development, Journal of Development Economics, Journal of Latin American Studies, Latin American Research Review, and Foreign Affairs.

His most recent book, Uncommon Common Ground: Race and America’s Future (W.W. Norton 2010; co-authored with Angela Glover Blackwell and Stewart Kwoh), documents the gap between progress in racial attitudes and racial realities, and offers a new set of strategies for both talking about race and achieving racial equity.