Glenda M. Flores

Associate Professor
Ph.D., Sociology, University of Southern California, 2011
Gender Studies certificate, USC, 2011

Gender and Work; Race/Ethnicity and Occupations; Latina/o/x Sociology; Education; Intersectionalities; Race and Ethnic Relations; Qualitative Methods

Welcome! I’m an expert in qualitative sociology. As an intersectional feminist, my research revolves around three interrelated lines: 1) the ways college-educated Latinas/os narrate or explain their pathways into professional occupations; 2) their impact on workplace climate; and 3) race relations and interactions with members of various racial/ethnic categories. These areas are united by my overarching theoretical interest in the social mobility patterns of working-class Latinas/os into the middle class, and their workplace experiences in the white-collar world, especially teaching and medicine. Recently, I’ve gotten more interested in understanding the often contradicting gendered dynamics within Latina/o/x families and career choices in STEM. I am currently Co-PI on a nearly three million dollar HSI-NSF grant and captured the student voice of students enrolled in various STEM majors in order to help faculty create more inclusive classroom spaces. You can learn more about the project here.

Much of my work is inspired by the world around me. My first language is Spanish and I started learning English when I was eight, as the bilingual program at the school I was enrolled at required. As a child, I worked at a dry cleaner alongside my parents, and as a young adult I worked as a substitute teacher.