Michael Rodríguez-Muñiz is assistant professor of Sociology and Latina/o Studies at Northwestern University. His current research focuses on ethnoracial knowledge and Latinx politics. His first book, Figures of the Future: Latino Civil Rights and the Politics of Demographic Change, is forthcoming with Princeton University Press. He is the winner the 2016 American Sociological Association Dissertation Award and has published in the American Journal of Sociology, American Journal of Cultural Sociology, Ethnography, Qualitative Sociology, and Engaging Science, Technology & Society, and several edited volumes. His next major research project will explore the history of Puerto Rican radicalism, memory, and state repression in Chicago.
Cristina Beltrán, Ph.D., works at the intersection of Latinx politics and political theory. She is an associate professor and director of graduate studies in the Department of Social and Cultural Analysis at New York University. Her work has appeared in Political Theory, the Du Bois Review, Aztlán: A Journal of Chicano Studies, Political Research Quarterly, and various edited volumes. She is currently the co-editor of Theory & Event, a peer-reviewed journal that publishes work by scholars working at the intersections of political theory, cultural theory, political economy, aesthetics, philosophy, and the arts. She is also an occasional guest on MSNBC.
Her latest book Cruelty as Citizenship: How Migrant Suffering Sustains White Democracy explores the American right’s deep antipathy toward nonwhite migrants from Mexico and Latin America and examines why acts of cruelty against migrants are so gratifying (and even pleasurable) for many in the Republican Party.
Event Recap
Moderated by The Latinx Project’s very own Cristina Beltrán, this energizing and intellectual book talk welcomed Michael Rodríguez-Muñiz as he discussed his upcoming book Figures of the Future: Latino Civil Rights and the Politics of Demographic Change. Together, Muñiz and Beltrán discussed a vital issue in today’s political world – that is, the particular political present that is flooded with ideas, images, and infographics about the future ethno-racial composition of the United States. Their conversation questioned the multilayered approach of political advocacy groups in the United States, particularly the ways in which the “browning of America” has simultaneously been used as a tool and as a weapon in the country’s recent history. Followed by a stimulating Q&A with event attendees, Muñiz left the audience with invaluable insight on the undeniable politics of ethno-racial demographic changes, a phenomenon he labels as “population politics” in his book, and challenged us to think differently about the United States’ political future.