Edward Telles

Edward Telles is a distinguished Professor of Sociology at the University of California, Irvine. Previously, he held positions at the University of California, Santa Barbara; Princeton University; and UCLA. He currently serves as a Research Associate and board member at the Centre de Estudis Demogràfics in Barcelona, Spain. A member of the Academy of Arts and Sciences, his research redefined global sociological perspectives beyond U.S.-centric racial paradigms, focusing on Latin America and Latino communities in the U.S.

His research interests include race, ethnicity, social inequality, and immigration. He pioneered large-scale social surveys like the Project on Ethnicity and Race in Latin America (PERLA), analyzing ethnoracial dynamics through multi-country comparative studies. His work emphasizes pigmentocracies, intermarriage trends, and the intersection of economic status with racial identity.

Telles’ publications explore themes such as skin color stratification in Brazil, misalignment between state and popular understandings of race in Mexico, and the impacts of U.S. census methodologies. His articles consistently bridge empirical data with theoretical frameworks, addressing global racial inequities and policy implications.

His awards include membership in the Academy of Arts and Sciences. As a principal investigator, he leads interdisciplinary teams examining transnational racial dynamics. His future work expands on global ethnoracial classification systems and their societal impacts.