Alejandro Portes is a prominent Cuban-American sociologist. He received his Ph.D. in sociology from the University of Wisconsin–Madison in 1970. He is currently head of the department of sociology at Princeton University and a member of the National Academy of Science. He also served as the president of American Sociological Association in 1999. His academic studies have focused on immigration to the United States and factors affecting the fates of immigrants and their children. He has also done work on shack settlements in Latin America.
Portes has held the John Dewey Chair in Arts and Science at Johns Hopkins University and the Emilio Bacardi distinguished professorship at the University of Miami. He has also previously taught at the University of Texas at Austin and Duke University. In 2008 Portes was awarded the NAS Award for Scientific Reviewing from the National Academy of Sciences.
Selected Publications
2005 (with William Haller) "The Informal Economy." In N. Smelser and R. Swedberg (eds.) HANDBOOK OF ECONOMIC SOCIOLOGY, 2nd edition, New York: Russell Sage Foundation (forthcoming).
2004 (with Lingxin Hao) "The Schooling of Children of Immigrants: Contextual Effects on the Educational Attainment of the Second Generation." PROCEEDINGS OF THE NATIONAL ACADEMY OF SCIENCES 101 (August): 11920-11927.
2003 (with Kelly Hoffman) "Latin American Class Structures: Their Composition and Change during the Neoliberal Era." LATIN AMERICAN RESEARCH REVIEW 38 (February): 41-82.
2003 (with Luis E. Guarnizo and William Haller) "Assimilation and Transnationalism: Determinants of Transnational Political Action among Contemporary Migrants." AMERICAN JOURNAL OF SOCIOLOGY 108 (May): 1211-1248.
2003 "Theoretical Convergencies and Empirical Evidence in the Study of Immigrant Transnationalism." INTERNATIONAL MIGRATION REVIEW 37 (Fall): 814-892.
