Roberta Espinoza, PhD
Assistant Professor of Sociology

Research Interests

Sociology of Education; Sociology of Family; Social Stratification; Race, Class, and Gender; and Qualitative and Quantitative Methods

Recent Courses

Sociology and Its View of the World (SOC1)
Qualitative Research Methods (SOC102)

Selected Publications

Working-class Minority Students' Routes to Higher Education. New York, NY: Routledge, 2012.

Pivotal Moments: How Educators Can Put All Students on the Path to College. Cambridge, MA: Harvard Education Press, 2011.

"Finding Pivotal Moments," Educational Leadership, vol. 69, no. 7 (2012).

"Educational Pivotal Moments," Principal Leadership, vol. 12, no. 5 (2012).

"The Good Daughter Dilemma: Latinas Managing Family and School Demands," Journal of Hispanic Higher Education, vol. 9, no. 4 (2010).

Civic Engagement Patterns of Undocumented Mexican Students," Journal of Hispanic Higher Education, vol. 9, no. 3 (2010). With W. Perez, K. Ramos, H. Coronado, and R. Cortes.

Recent Conference Presentations and Invited Talks

"He Motivated Me to Want to go to College": Student-Educator Relationships that Produce College Aspirations," paper presented at the annual American Sociological Association Conference, Denver, CO, August 2012.

"From High School dropout to Community College: Bridging Low-income and Minority Students to Higher Education," paper presented at the annual Pacific Sociological Association Conference, San Diego, CA, March 2012. With D. Armenta and K. Camak.

"Moments of Social Reproduction and Interruption: How Educator-Student Relationships Shape College Aspirations and Success," paper presented at the annual Pacific Sociological Association Conference, Seattle, WA, March 2011. With C. Alcantar.

"The Role of Academic Outreach Programs in the Educational Advancement of Working-class Minority Students," paper presented at the annual Pacific Sociological Association Conference, Seattle, WA, March 2011. With M. De La Cruz and C. Alcantar.

Selected Grants, Awards, and Honors                                                                        

UC ACCORD Dissertation Fellowship 2006-2007
University of California President's Dissertation Year Fellowship 2005-2006
Center for Latino Policy Research Mini-Grant Award 2005-2006
American Sociological Association Minority Fellowship 2002-2005
Sociologists for Women in Society Fellowship 2003-2004          
U.S. Department of Education McNair Scholar 1996-1997