Scholarship and Biography
Sarah Mayorga is Professor of Sociology and faculty in the Latin American, Caribbean, and Latinx Studies program. She teaches courses on the sociology of race and racism, urban sociology, Latinx sociology, and inequalities in the media.
Her research investigates questions of racism and power, with a focus on multiracial neighborhoods. Mayorga's first book, Behind the White Picket Fence: Power and Privilege in a Multiethnic Neighborhood, won the 2015 American Sociological Association Latino/a Sociology Section’s Distinguished Contribution to Research Book Award. Mayorga conducted in-depth interviews, participant observation, and a household survey to illustrate how spatial proximity (how closely different racial-ethnic groups live to each other) does not necessarily translate to racial equity. Mayorga has also published several articles on diversity ideology, the role of dogs in maintaining racial boundaries in multiracial neighborhoods, whiteness as a social determinant of health, and the particularities of conducting research in multiethnic settings.
Mayorga's second book project analyzes the experiences of residents from two working-class Cincinnati, Ohio neighborhoods to understand how processes of racial capitalism shape what residents say, how residents interact with their neighbors, and the practices of neighborhood institutions, such as neighborhood associations and local police. Urban Specters: The Everyday Harms of Racial Capitalism is forthcoming from UNC Press (Fall 2023).