Manuel Pastor

Dr. Manuel Pastor is professor of Sociology and American Studies & Ethnicity at the University of Southern California (USC), where he currently directs the Program for Environmental and Regional Equity (PERE) and the Center for the Study of Immigrant Integration (CSII). He is the USC Turpanjian Chair in Civil Society and Social Change, and holds a Ph.D. in economics from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst.

Dr. Pastor’s research has generally focused on issues surrounding the economic, environmental and social conditions facing low-income urban communities, and the social movements seeking to change these realities. His recent books include: State of Resistance: What California’s Dizzying Descent and Remarkable Resurgence Means for America’s Future (New Press, 2018), Unsettled Americans: Metropolitan Context and Civic Leadership for Immigrant Integration, co-edited with John Mollenkopf (Cornell University Press 2016), and Equity, Growth and Community: What the Nation Can Learn from America’s Metro Areas, co-authored with Chris Benner (University of Chicago Press, 2015).

Dr. Pastor has previously served as a public member of the Strategic Growth Council in California, as a member of the Commission on Regions, appointed by California’s Speaker of the State Assembly, and as a member of the Regional Targets Advisory Committee for the California Air Resources Board. In 2012, he received the Liberty Hill Foundation’s Wally Marks Changemaker of the Year Award for social justice research partnerships.