Pamela Zabala Ortiz

Pamela Zabala Ortiz is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Sociology at Boston University, where she specializes in race and ethnicity, migration, and Afro-Latinx identity. Her research examines constructions of Blackness in the U.S. and Latin America, focusing on racial contestations and transnational identity formations. She holds a PhD from Duke University (2024), an MA from Duke (2021), and a BA in Sociology and Africana Studies from Bowdoin College (2017).

Her work has been supported by the Russell Sage Foundation and the Social Science Research Council, and she has received recognition such as the 2022 ‘Rising Graduate Scholar’ award from Diverse: Issues in Higher Education. She is currently completing a book project titled Black but “not Black”: Dominican Racial Contestations and the Pursuit of Authentic Blackness, supported by a CISS Book Incubator Grant and the 2025 Dominican Studies Research Fellowship.

Zabala Ortiz’s research spans migration studies, racial politics, and critical race theory, with a focus on Latin America and the Caribbean. She actively participates in initiatives like the Migration Studies Workshop at Boston University, contributing to interdisciplinary dialogues on global migration and identity.