Jessica Vasquez-Tokos

Jessica Vasquez-Tokos is a Professor in the Department of Sociology at the University of Oregon's College of Arts and Sciences, holding a joint appointment with the Institute for Excellence in Racial and Ethnic Studies (IRES). Her office is located in PLC 715 with Spring 2025 office hours by appointment.

Her educational background includes:

• B.A. in English from Princeton University (1998)
• Ph.D. in Sociology from the University of California, Berkeley (2007)

Professor Vasquez-Tokos's research centers on race/ethnicity, Mexican Americans/Latinos/as/xs, social inequalities, gender, family, and intermarriage. She employs qualitative approaches to examine racial identity formation across generations, the racialization of privacy within families, and Latino middle-class experiences. Her work reveals how racial status fundamentally shapes national belonging and family dynamics through life course perspectives, challenging assimilationist frameworks while documenting persistent structural inequalities.

Her publication trajectory shows deepening engagement with racial formation theory, evolving from early work on generational identity shifts to recent investigations of national belonging in her 2025 book Burdens of Belonging. The 2024 articles on the Latino middle class and couple identity work demonstrate her dual focus on structural inequality and micro-interactional processes. Recurring methodological themes include life course analysis and reflexive qualitative interviewing techniques.

Her scholarly contributions have earned significant recognition:

• Distinguished Contribution to Scholarship Article Award (ASA Race, Gender, and Class Section, 2021)
• Fund for Faculty Excellence Award (University of Oregon, 2017)
• Choice Outstanding Academic Title (2012)
• Best Article Award (ASA Latino/a Sociology Section, 2010)

Professor Vasquez-Tokos's career includes a Ford Foundation Postdoctoral Fellowship and Russell Sage Foundation Visiting Scholar position. While specific student advising details aren't listed, her professorship involves graduate mentorship in sociology. Her research consistently addresses how racial hierarchies permeate intimate family spaces and national identity formation.

As an IRES affiliate, she contributes to interdisciplinary initiatives examining racial and ethnic dynamics through the Institute for Excellence in Racial and Ethnic Studies at the University of Oregon.