Chris Zepeda-Millán
Biography:
Born and raised in the East Los Angeles barrio of Boyle Heights, Chris Zepeda-Millán was the first Chicano to receive a Ph.D. from the Department of Government at Cornell University. His research has been published in top political science and interdisciplinary academic journals, such as the American Journal of Political Science (AJPS), Political Research Quarterly (PRQ), Politics, Groups and Identities (PGI), Critical Sociology, the Chicana/o Latina/o Law Review, Social Science Quarterly (SSQ), and the Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies (JEMS). His first book, Latino Mass Mobilization: Immigration, Racialization, and Activism (Cambridge University Press) received multiple national honors, including the prestigious Ralph J. Bunche “Best Book on Ethnic and Cultural Pluralism Award” from the American Political Science Association (APSA), the “Best Book on Race and Immigration Award” from the Race, Ethnicity, and Politics (REP) Section of the APSA, and the coveted “Charles Tilly Distinguished Contribution to Scholarship Book Award” from the American Sociological Association’s Section on Collective Behavior and Social Movements. His second book, co-authored with Sophia Wallace (University of Washington), is titled Walls, Cages, and Family Separation: Race and Immigration Policy in the Trump Era (2020), was also published by Cambridge University Press.
As a publicly engaged scholar, Professor Zepeda-Millán has been interviewed by several local, national, and international media outlets. His public intellectual work includes working with local and national community organizations, publishing op-eds in local newspapers across the country, and being an invited contributor to NBC News, Latino Decisions, the London School of Economics’ USA blog, The Progressive magazine, and The Huffington Post. Professor Zepeda-Millan has also been involved in various social movements related to environmental and global justice, labor, student, immigrant, and indigenous rights.
Prior to joining the Departments of Public Policy and Chicana/o Studies at UCLA, Professor Zepeda-Millán was a Provost Postdoctoral Scholar in the Department of Political Science at the University of Chicago, as well as a faculty member at Loyola Marymount University and UC Berkeley, where he chaired the Center for Research on Social Change. He is currently the chair of UCLA’s Labor Studies Program as well as the founder and faculty director of the UCLA Strategic Research Lab.
Courses:
Immigration Policy
Labor Organizing
Unions in American Politics
Social Movements
Racial Politics
Latinx Labor
Latino Politics
Interdisciplinary Research Methods
Books:
Latino Mass Mobilization: Immigration, Racialization, and Activism (Cambridge University Press 2017)
Walls, Cage & Family Separation: Race and Immigration Policy in the Trump Era (Cambridge University Press 2020)
Selected Articles & Book Chapters:
“The U.S. Immigrant Rights Movement.” With Ramon Garibaldo Valdez. Contemporary Social Movements. Eds. Doug McAdam, David Snow, and Dana Moss (Wiley Blackwell 2026).
“Contesting Borders in the ‘Age of Migration’: Progressive Border Activism in the U.S. & Europe.”
With Elias Steinhilper and Moritz Sommer. Handbook on Progressive Politics. Ed. Alice Mattoni (Elgar Publishing 2025).
“Do Latinos Still Support Immigrant Rights Activism? Examining Latino Attitudes a Decade After the 2006 Protest Wave.”
With Sophia Wallace. Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies (JEMS). Vol. 46 (4): 770-790, 2020.
“Mobilizing for Immigrant Rights Under Trump.”
With Sophia Wallace. The Resistance: The Dawn of the Anti-Trump Opposition Movement. Eds. David S. Meyer and Sidney Tarrow (Oxford University Press 2018).
“The Political Effects of Having Undocumented Parents: How Parental Illegality Impacts the Political Behavior of their U.S.-Born Children.”
With Alex Street and Michael Jones-Correa. Political Research Quarterly. Vol. 70 (4): 818-832, 2017.
“The Impact of Large-Scale Collective Action on Latino Perceptions of Commonality and Competition with African-Americans.”
With Michael Jones-Correa and Sophia Wallace. Social Science Quarterly (SSQ), Vol. 97 (2): 458-475, 2016.
“Weapons of the (Not So) Weak: Immigrant Mass Mobilization in the U.S. South.”
Critical Sociology, Vol. 42 (2): 269-287, 2016.
“Mass Deportation and the Future of Latino Partisanship.”
With Alex Street and Michael Jones-Correa. Social Science Quarterly (SSQ), Vol. 96 (2): 540-552, 2015.
“Perceptions of Threat, Demographic Diversity, and the Framing of Illegality: Explaining (non)Participation in New York’s 2006 Immigrant Protests.”
Political Research Quarterly (PRQ), 67(4): 880-888, 2014.
“Triangulation in Social Movement Research.”
With Phil M. Ayoub and Sophia J. Wallace. Methodological Practices In Social Movement Research. Donatella della Porta (Ed.), Oxford University Press, 2014.
“Spatial and Temporal Proximity: Examining the Effects of the 2006 Immigrant Rights Marches on Political Attitudes.”
With Sophia Wallace and Michael Jones-Correa. American Journal of Political Science (AJPS), 58(2): 433-448, 2014.
“Racialization in Times of Contention: How Social Movements Influence Latino Racial Identity.”
With Sophia Wallace. Politics, Groups, and Identities (PGI), 1(4): 510-527, 2013.
