U.S. and Non-U.S. Scholars

Fulbright New Century Scholars Program
Overview • Previous NCS Programs • NCS Scholar List • NCS Brochure • 2007-2008

de la Torre, Carlos

• de la Torre, Carlos
  
• Chair
  
• FLACSO-Ecuador
  
• Department of Political Studies
  
• Ecuador

Carlos de la Torre is currently Chair of Political Studies and Director of the Ph.D. program in Social Sciences at the Latin American Faculty for Social Sciences FLACSO-Ecuador. Before joining FLACSO he was Associate Professor of Sociology at Northeastern University, and at Drew University.

He got his Ph.D. in sociology from the New School for Social Research. He has published extensively on Latin American populism, and on the sociology of racism in Latin America. Carlos is an active member of the Latin American Studies Association and of the Current History chapter of the Latin American Council for Social Sciences (CLACSO).

Selected Publications

• Afroquiteños: Ciudadanía y Racismo. Quito: CAAP, 2002.
• Populist Seduction in Latin America. Athens: Ohio University Press, 2000
• El Racismo en Ecuador: Experiencias de los Indios de Clase Media. Quito: CAAP, 1996. (Second edition Quito: Abya-Yala 2002).
• “Afro-Ecuadorian Responses to Racism: Between Corporatism and Citizenship.” In Anani Dzidzienyo y Suzanne Oboler, eds., Neither Enemies nor Friends. Blacks, Latinos, Afro-Latinos, pp. 61-75. New York: Palgrave Press, 2005.
• “Racism in Education and the Construction of Citizenship in Ecuador,” Race and Class, Vol. 42, N 2, October -December, 2000, pp. 33-45.

Racism and Citizenship in Ecuador’s Educational System

This project will analyze the intersections between race, class, and gender to describe patterns of exclusion in the Ecuadorian educational system that reduce the possibilities for social mobility and equality. It will also analyze how the victims of discrimination respond, and whether their responses allow for the construction of citizenship. The study will focus on institutional discrimination as well as on interpersonal discrimination. The project has four goals: 1) to understand how discrimination works in Ecuador’s educational system. 2) To asses the democratizing impact of different responses to discrimination. 3) To compare the Ecuadorian case with other national experiences. 4) To share the results of this project with indigenous and afro organizations so they have better tools to struggle for their human and democratic rights.