Carolina S. Sarmiento

My research and practice focuses on learning from the grassroots and building sustainable and creative alternatives that help address inequality and injustice. I investigate the intersection between urban development, governance, and the creation and destruction of cultural spaces in working class communities of color.

In my research, I examine the everyday responses of working class communities ranging from community-based planning, to transnational development, to the creation of new democratic processes and spaces. I also form part of a joint research team studying transnational indigenous communities in Oaxaca, Mexico, and Los Angeles that build economic projects across borders. My research is grounded in community practice.

I helped found El Centro Cultural de Mexico, a center for immigrant rights and community organizing in Santa Ana, California. Working in collaboration with the UCLA Labor Center, I also helped open the Community Labor Project at the University of California, Irvine, a project that seeks to increase the quality, scale, and effectiveness of civic participation in communities of color and low-income populations in Orange County. I am co-founder of MASData, Data for Movement, Action and Strategy. I currently sit on the board of directors of the Worker Rights Center here in Madison.