Jozef Callan Robles, PhD

Sociologist of Law, Migration, Race, & State Power

CURRENT APPOINTMENT

UC President’s Postdoctoral Fellow
University of California, San Diego

RESEARCH AGENDA

I study how law and state institutions create and reshape social hierarchies, and how people experience, navigate, and respond to systems of governance and social control. the effects of state exclusion.

FEATURED RESEARCH

JOURNAL ARTICLE

REMNANTS OF ILLEGALITY

Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies

Based on in-depth interviews with formerly undocumented immigrants, I argue that transitioning through statuses leaves behind remnants of illegality—lingering effects of previous legal designations that continue to impact a person even after they are no longer in that status.

Winner of the 2025 ASA Latina/o Sociology Section’s Cristina Maria Riegos Student Paper Award

JOURNAL ARTICLE

PLACING MEXICAN ETHNIC ENCLAVES

Critical Sociology | First Author

We draw on twenty interviews with Mexican immigrants in the U.S. to examine how individuals form attachments to La Calle Cuatro, a Mexican ethnic enclave in California. Our model of place attachment reveals paradoxical and recursive outcomes that produce belonging within the enclave alongside broader experiences of alienation.