Jose J. Gutierrez

Welcome! I am José Gutierrez, a Ph.D. Candidate in Sociology at UC Irvine and an Adjunct Instructor of Ethnic Studies at Pasadena City College. Beginning Fall 2026, I will be joining Golden West College as an Instructor of Ethnic Studies and Chicano Studies.

I design and teach Latino Studies and Ethnic Studies courses, including Introduction to Chicano and Latino Studies and Introduction to Ethnic Studies. My teaching interests also include introductory courses in Sociology, and courses that reflect my expertise in Latino sociology, race and ethnicity, immigration, education, social inequality, and qualitative research methods.

My dissertation project, Latino Young Adulthood and the Community College Pathway, draws on life history interviews with Latino young adults who are current and former community college students to analyze the social implications of contemporary inequality and increased access to higher education for Latinos. Through interviews with community college students, transfer students, graduates, and stop-outs, the project explores how rising economic inequality and the expansion of higher education are shaping the transition to adulthood for Latino young adults. At its core, this project asks what it means to expand access to higher education without expanding access to its rewards, and examines how this predicament shapes how Latino young adults experience and understand what it means to become an adult.

My research has been supported and recognized by UCI’s Center for Anti-Racism, Liberation, and Belonging, the American Association of Hispanics in Higher Education, the Ford Foundation, the Russell Sage Foundation, and the Spencer Foundation.

Alongside my dissertation research, I have also contributed to the Fulfilling the UC PromISE: Strengthening Access to Essential Needs Services for Undocumented and Immigration-Impacted Latinx UC Students Research Project. This project draws on survey data, focus groups, and interviews to identify how essential-needs insecurity among undocumented and U.S. citizen children of undocumented parents in higher education is produced, experienced, and managed — all with the goal of identifying barriers to support and improving institutional responses to such inequalities.

Outside of my teaching and research, I enjoy lifting weights, visiting local swap meets, and finding new books for my collection.