Michael Rodríguez-Muñiz

Michael Rodríguez-Muñiz is an Associate Professor in the Department of Sociology at the University of California, Berkeley, where he co-directs the Latinx Social Science Pipeline initiative and the Anticolonial Lab. He joined Berkeley's faculty through the Latinx and Democracy cluster, focusing on critical race and Latinx studies within academic and community contexts.

His educational background includes:

• PhD in Sociology from Brown University
• MA in Sociology from the University of Illinois-Chicago
• BA in Political Science and Mexican and Caribbean Studies from Northeastern Illinois University

His research centers on race, knowledge production, and temporality within Latinx communities, with emphasis on demographic politics, anticolonial movements, and Du Boisian theory. Current projects examine Puerto Rican diasporic resistance, state repression, and the political construction of population statistics, utilizing ethnographic and qualitative methodologies to challenge dominant demographic narratives.

His publication portfolio reveals consistent engagement with Latinx political representation, demographic change discourse, and racial knowledge systems. Recent works critically analyze majority-minority projections, ethnoracial diversification attitudes, and the intersection of race with political trust, demonstrating methodological rigor through community-engaged scholarship.

His award-winning book Figures of the Future: Latino Civil Rights and the Politics of Demographic Change (2021) received:

• Otis Dudley Duncan Book Award (2023)
• Mary Douglas Book Prize (2022)
• ASA Latino/a Section Best Book Award (2022)
• Charles Tilly Distinguished Book Award Honorable Mention (2022)

As co-director of the Anticolonial Lab and Latinx Social Science Pipeline, Rodríguez-Muñiz bridges academic research with community action through initiatives like Digitizing the Barrio—a Puerto Rican community archive in Chicago—advancing anticolonial praxis and Latinx representation in knowledge production.