Dr. Manuel Pastor is a Distinguished Sociology and American Studies and Ethnicity Professor at the University of Southern California. He currently directs the Equity Research Institute at USC and is the inaugural holder of the Turpanjian Chair in Civil Society and Social Change there. Dr. Pastor’s research has generally focused on issues of the economic, environmental, and social conditions facing low-income urban communities–and the social movements seeking to change those realities.

2021 saw the publication of two new books, SolidarityEconomics: Why Mutuality and Movements Matter (co-authored with Chris Benner) and South Central Dreams: Finding Home and Building Community in South L.A.  (co-authored with Pierrette Hondagneu-Sotelo).

Getting to know Dr. Pastor:
He holds an economics Ph.D. from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, and was the founding director of the Center for Justice, Tolerance, and Community at the University of California, Santa Cruz and in 2022, Pastor was elected to the American Academy for the Arts and Sciences for his work in Public Affairs and Public Policy.