sociology of Latino/a-Chicano/a studies
critical migration studies
comparative race and ethnic relations
community sociology
political economy
cultural studies
social theory
Research
Ronald L. Mize is currently Assistant Professor of Latino Studies and Development Sociology at Cornell University. He was the
main Principal Investigator, from 2000 to 2004, for the CSU-San Marcos-San Diego Head Start Higher Education Partnership funded by
the DHHS-Administration on Children Youth and Families. He has previously taught sociology, ethnic studies, and history at University
of Saint Francis-Fort Wayne, CSU-San Marcos, University of California San Diego, Southwestern College, Colorado State University, and
University of Wisconsin Rock County. His research is on the historical and contemporary lived experiences of Chicano/a and Mexican
immigrant communities. He has published in Latino Studies Journal, Cleveland State Law Review, Ambulatory Pediatrics, Contemporary
Sociology, Rural Sociology and several encyclopedias. He is currently working on two manuscripts: the first on the US-Mexico Bracero
Program as recollected by former contract workers and the second, a history of the US consumption of Mexican immigrant labor from 1942
to the present (with Alicia Swords and Chris Zepeda).
Mize's scholarly research focuses on the historical origins of racial and class oppression in the lives of Mexicano/as residing in
the United States. Due to the reliance on Mexican labor in the rural industries of agriculture, mining, and railroad construction, his
historical research explores the class and race formations of Anglo-Chicano relations as they relate to these sectors of rural spaces
and the economy. He investigates the degree to which contemporary immigrant labor is informed by the history of Mexican incorporation
into the rural United States. Mize seeks to understand the underlying assumptions about nation, race, identity, gender and class in how
the public forms our opinions about immigration and part of his hope is to carve out a new paradigm for understanding both the political
economy and culture of immigration as well as its interconnections.
