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Pamela Anne Quiroz

Pamela Anne Quiroz

Distinguished Professor of Sociology

Phone: (713)743-3134
Email: paquiroz [at] uh [dot] edu
Office: 482 Philip G. Hoffman Hall
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Education

Ph.D., Sociology, University of Chicago
M.A., Sociology, Iowa State University
B.S.,  Sociology/Biology, Missouri Western State University

Biography

Pamela Anne Quiroz (Ph.D. University of Chicago, 1993) is Executive Director of the national research consortium, the Inter University Program on Latino Research [IUPLR]. Established in 1983, the Inter-University Program for Latino Research [IUPLR] is a national consortium of U.S. Latino, Latin American and Latino-Caribbean university-based Institutes and Research Centers, in 25 universities across the United States dedicated to the advancement of the Latino intellectual presence and scholarship.

The IUPLR promotes and disseminates comparative, interdisciplinary, and policy-focused research; expands the pool of Latino scholars and leaders; establishes projects with scholars in the arts, STEM fields, social sciences, health, culture and the humanities; enhances the institutional capacity of Latino-focused research centers and supports work that strengthens and serves Latino communities.

Professor Quiroz is also the Director of the Center for Mexican American Studies and the Center for Immigration Research at the University of Houston. She was recently elected the Vice President of the Society for the Study of Social Problems (2020), an interdisciplinary and national association dedicated to research focused on the pursuit of social justice. Author of two books and more than 40 publications, Professor Quiroz’ research has been published in several high profile journals and books and in Amicus Briefs submitted to the U.S. Supreme Court.

Professor Quiroz has been a Visiting Research Associate and member of the AFIN Research Group (Adopciones, Familias y Infantes) at the Autonomous University of Barcelona and a Fellow at one of the nation’s most prestigious social science think tanks, the Center for the Advanced Study of the Behavioral Sciences - Stanford University. She has also been a Fellow at the Institute for Research on Race and Public Policy and the Great Cities Institute at the University of Illinois-Chicago.

This year, as Executive Director of the IUPLR, Professor Quiroz focused her attention on Houston’s Latino art scene by bringing Latino Art Now! and its Spring of Latino Art to Houston. The name of Latino Art Now! (LAN) was adopted by IUPLR as a moniker for the series of conferences that have ensued since. LAN has evolved into the leading national forum for artists, art professionals, educators, scholars, critics, and art dealers to periodically explore the contours of Latino art and its future directions. With 70 participating organizations and scores of artists who participated in the LAN! Houston, the city experienced a special opportunity to embrace and empower its Latino arts community and ignite enthusiasm and engagement among artists, organizations and audiences in Houston and nationally.

With the support of fourteen sponsors, including a City Initiatives Grant from the Mayor’s Office of Cultural Affairs, LAN! Houston had more than 90 media articles written about local events and artists during its four month span (February-May) and obtained a potential reach of 77.2 million making this the most successful LAN event to date.

In 2019 Professor Quiroz was the recipient of five awards:

  • Texas Executive Women’s “Women on the Move”
  • Houston Business Journal’s “Women Who Mean Business”
  • Sola Magazine “Woman of the Year” in Education
  • Mayor’s Hispanic Advisory Board’s Award in Education
  • HACE Mujeres Leadership Cohort (Houston)

Research Interests

  • Children and Youth
  • Identity
  • Education
  • Family
  • Qualitative Methods

Teaching

Graduate Courses

  • Critical Sociology of Education
  • Cultural Pluralism & Educational Policy
  • Gender, Sexuality & Pedagogy
  • Latinos in School & Society
  • Qualitative Methods
  • Race & Ethnic Relations
  • Sociology of Children & Youth

Undergraduate Courses

  • Child and Youth Policies in Urban America
  • Corporate Deviance
  • Critical Pedagogy & Popular Culture
  • Girls, Women & Education
  • Kids, Culture & Context
  • Race & Ethnic Relations
  • Race/Ethncity, Gender & Social Class
  • Race and Ethnic Groups
  • Sociology of the Family
  • Social Problems
  • Social Foundations of Education

Selected Publications

  • Quiroz, Pamela A., and Vernon Lindsay. 2015. "Selective Enrollment, Race, and Shifting the Geography of Educational Opportunity: Where 'Diversity' and Opportunity Compete with Tax Increment Financing." Humanity & Society 39(4):376–393. https://doi.org/10.1177/0160597615603749
  • Quiroz, Pamela A. 2015. “Adoptive Parents Raising Neoethnics.” Ch 35 in Families As They Really Are, 2nd edition, edited by B. Risman and V. Rutter. New York: W.W. Norton Publishers.
  • Quiroz, Pamela A., Kisha Milam-Brooks, and Dominique Adams-Romena. 2014. "School as Solution to the 'Problem' of Urban Place: Children's Perceptions of Safety, Migration, & Community." Childhood: A Journal of Global Child Research 21(2):207–225. https://doi.org/10.1177/0907568213496654
  • Quiroz, Pamela A. 2013. "From Finding the Perfect Love Online to Satellite Dating and ‘Loving-the-one-you’re near’ : A Look at Grindr, Skout, MeetMoi, PlentyofFish, Zoosk, and Assisted Serendipity." Humanity & Society 37(2):181–185. https://doi.org/10.1177/0160597613481727
  • Quiroz, Pamela A. 2013. "From Mail Order and Picture Brides, Lonely Hearts and Social Clubs, to eHarmony, ‘Just Lunch’, Speed Dating, and Coffee Mating: The Evolution of Personal Advertising.” Pp. 114–129 in Dynamics and Interconnections in Popular Culture, edited by Ray B. Brown and Ben Urish. Newcastle upon Tyne: Cambridge Scholars Publishing.
  • Quiroz, Pamela A. 2012. “Cultural Tourism in Transnational Adoption: ‘Staged Authenticity’ and Implications for Children.” Journal of Family Issues 33(4):527–555. https://doi.org/10.1177/0192513X11418179
  • Quiroz, Pamela A. 2001. “The Silencing of Latino Student ‘Voice’: Puerto Rican and Mexican Narratives in Eighth Grade and High School.” Anthropology and Education Quarterly 32(3):326–349. https://www.jstor.org/stable/3195991
  • Quiroz, Pamela A., Nilda Flores Gonzalez, and Kenneth A. Frank. 1996. “Carving a Niche in the High School Social Structure: Formal & Informal Constraints on Participation in the Extra Curriculum.” Research in Sociology of Education & Socialization 11:93–120.
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