Roberto Mónico

I earned my PhD in Comparative Ethnic Studies from the University of Colorado, Boulder, my Master’s in Ethnic Studies from San Francisco State University, and my Bachelor’s in Sociology from the University of California, Berkeley. My scholarship focuses on the rise of the prison-industrial complex and police expansion. I apply critical race theory, de/post-colonial studies, and historiography to examine how state and federal laws, and policing policies have created the conditions for state-sanctioned violence and organized abandonment of working-class communities of color. Additionally, I employ an intersectional framework that emphasizes race, class, and citizenship status. While my research interrogates how government institutions target our most vulnerable populations, I also believe in empowering our system-impacted communities by amplifying their voices and lived experiences. I have worked with California Prison Focus, Prison Activist Resource Center, Underground Scholars Initiative, and Project Rebound.

I teach ES 105: Introduction to Ethnic Studies, ES 107: Chicanx/Latinx Lives, ES 200: Comparative Histories between African Americans and Latinx Americans in the United States, ES 308:Multiethnic Resistance, and CRGS 390: Theory and Methods. I have taught at the Pelican Bay Prison satellite campus in the first-ever level four Bachelor’s program in the state. I am also the co-chair of the Ethnic Studies council, working alongside Dr. Cinthya Ammerman of the Native American department, the faculty lead for the Place-Based Learning Community (PBLC) – Creando Raíces, and a member of the central committee for the Diverse Male Student Initiative (DMSI).

Publications:
Mónico, Roberto. “Reflections of Right-Wing Leadership in the United States: From LAPD Chief William Parker to Donald Trump.” In Resistance and Abolition in the Borderlands: Confronting Trump’s Reign of Terror, edited by Arturo J. Aldama and Jessica Ordaz. University of Arizona Press, 2024.
Mónico, Roberto. "Snapshots of Resistance and Solidarity in the East Bay." In Humboldt Journal of Social Relations 1 (44). 2022.

Awards:
Research, Scholarship, and Creative Activities (RSCA), Precarity in Los Angeles: Race, Immigration, and Law Enforcement During the Cold War, Cal Poly Humboldt, 2025 Emeritus & Retired Faculty & Staff Award at Cal Poly Humboldt, “Teaching Research Methods at Pelican Bay,” 2025

Office Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Award for “Centering Discarded Voices: Education,
Dialogue, and Resisting the Prison Industrial Complex,” Cal Poly Humboldt 2022
Department of Comparative Ethnic Studies Fellowship Award, Boulder, CO. 2020-2021
Graduate Student Award, Center to Advance Research and Teaching in the Social Sciences
(CARTSS), Boulder, CO. 2019-2020
New Leaders Scholars, San Francisco, CA. 2015-2018
Ronald E. McNair Scholarship, University of California, Berkeley, 2016
Department of Sociology, Alpha Kappa Delta, University of California, Berkeley, 2015-2016
UCLA Law Fellows, University of California, Los Angeles, 2015