Tomás Rodríguez
Assistant Professor
Dr. Tomás Rodríguez was born in Habana (Cuba) and raised in Madrid (Spain) and Miami, Florida. In 1992, Florida International University (FIU) awarded him a B.S. in Social Science with minors in Sociology and Antrhopology. In addition, he obtained a certificate in Latin American and Caribbean Studies from FIU’s celebrated Latin American and Caribbean Center. He later went on to obtain a Ph.D. in 1999 from Johns Hopkins University. At Johns Hopkins, he worked with sociologist Alejandro Portes on the longitudinal study "Children of Immigrants: The Adaptation Process of the Second Generation." His dissertation resulted from this study and focused on how ethnic/racial context in secondary schools influence the academic performance, language proficiency and self-esteem of second-generation Latino adolescents. After the Ph.D., Dr. Rodríguez spent two years at the University of Chicago as a Spencer Postdoctoral Fellow researching immigrant adolescents in Chicago’s urban schools. Since then he’s held faculty appointments at John Carroll University in Cleveland, the University of South Florida in Tampa and now at California State University, Stanislaus. In his free time he travels, hikes and plays all kinds of hand drums, including bongos, congas, djembes and other kinds of Afro-Caribbean and West African percussion instruments.
Education
- Ph.D Sociology, Johns Hopkins University, 1999
- M.A. Sociology, Johns Hopkins University, 1995
- B.S. Social Science, Florida International University, 1992
Areas of Interest:
- Race and Ethnic Relations
- Immigration and Ethnicity
- Sociology of Education
- Educational Inequality
Courses Taught:
- Sociology of Men and Society
- Sociology of Education
- Classical Sociological Theory
- Comparative Ethnic Relations
- Immgiration and Ethnicity in America
Professional Memberships:
- California Faculty Association
- Pacific Sociological Assocation