Welcome! I am José Gutierrez, a tenure-track instructor of Chicana/o Studies at Golden West College and a Ph.D. candidate in Sociology at the University of California, Irvine. Before joining Golden West, I taught Ethnic Studies at Pasadena City College and Chicana/o and Latina/o Studies and Sociology at UC Irvine.
At Golden West, I teach courses in Ethnic Studies and Chicana/o Studies, including Introduction to Chicana/o and Latina/o Studies and Introduction to Race and Ethnicity. My teaching interests also include introductory sociology, Latino sociology, immigration, education, social inequality, and qualitative research methods. Alongside my teaching, I am building the college’s Chicana/o Studies program, including writing curriculum for new courses.
My dissertation, Navigating Pathways to Adulthood in an Era of Precarity: Latino Young Adults on the Community College Pathway, draws on life history interviews with 85 Latino young adults who are current community college students, transfer students, graduates, and stop-outs. At its core, the project asks what happens when access to college expands but its payoff does not. In an era of rising economic inequality, many Latino young adults leave community college without a degree, and even those who transfer and graduate often find that stable work and financial security remain out of reach. I examine how this shapes what becoming an adult looks and feels like for them.
My research on Latino young adults, higher education, social mobility, and the transition to adulthood has been supported by the Russell Sage Foundation Dissertation Research Grant, the American Association of Hispanics in Higher Education Graduate Fellowship, and UC Irvine’s Center for Anti-Racism, Liberation, and Belonging Fellowship. I also received UC Irvine’s Department of Sociology Outstanding Research Award and was selected for the National Academy of Education/Spencer Dissertation Fellowship, which I declined upon accepting my tenure-track appointment at Golden West College.
I have also contributed to the research project Fulfilling the UC PromISE: Strengthening Access to Essential Needs Services for Undocumented and Immigration-Impacted Latinx UC Students. Using survey data, focus groups, and interviews, this project examines how essential-needs insecurity among undocumented students and U.S.-citizen children of undocumented parents is produced, experienced, and managed, with the goal of identifying barriers to support and informing more equitable institutional responses.
Outside of my teaching and research, I enjoy strength training, exploring local swap meets, and finding new books for my collection.
