Pastor, Manuel
Manuel Pastor
Dr. Manuel Pastor is a Distinguished Professor of Sociology and American Studies & Ethnicity at the University of Southern California. Dr. Pastor holds an economics Ph.D. from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst. He is the inaugural holder of the Turpanjian Chair in Civil Society and Social Change. Dr. Pastor directs the Equity Research Institute (ERI). His research focuses on economic, environmental, and social issues facing low-income urban communities – and the social movements seeking to change those realities. Dr. Pastor frequently discusses demographic change, economic inequality, and community empowerment. He has written opinion pieces for the Los Angeles Times, the San Francisco Chronicle, the San Jose Mercury News, the Sacramento Bee, the Huffington Post, and many others.
Le, T. V., & Pastor, M. 2022. Family Matters: Modeling Naturalization Propensities in the United States. International Migration Review, 01979183221112898.
Pastor, M., Speer, P., Gupta, J., Han, H., & Ito, J. 2022. Community Power and Health Equity: Closing the Gap between Scholarship and Practice. NAM perspectives.
Cha, J.M. and Pastor, M., 2022. Just transition: Framing, organizing, and power-building for decarbonization. Energy Research & Social Science, 90, p.102588.
Stephens, P. and Pastor, M., 2020. WHAT’S GOING ON?: Black experiences of latinization and loss in south Los Angeles. Du Bois Review: Social Science Research on Race, 17(1), pp.1-32.
Cha, J.M., Wander, M. and Pastor, M., 2020. Environmental justice, just transition, and a low-carbon future for California. Envtl. L. Rep., 50, p.10216.
Manuel Pastor grew up in La Puente, California. He recalls the smog and toxic dumping grounds, “We were living in a place with lots of toxics, though we did not know it” (2016). While growing up amidst the pollution and optimism of Southern California, Dr. Pastor’s involvement with the environmental movement grew out of his concerns for social and economic inequality. For Dr. Pastor, the environment was another way to demonstrate the disparity of the social structure in the United States. It was also a way to open conversations on the inequality of opportunities that exist in a variety of different spheres.
Dr. Pastor earned undergraduate and graduate degrees in economics and pursued an academic career. He graduated from the University of California, Santa Cruz, with a bachelor’s degree in economics and creative writing in 1978. In 1984, he earned his Ph.D. in economics from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, and became an assistant professor of economics position at Occidental College.
Dr. Pastor started his first job as a construction worker at 16. He recalls how this job demonstrated the labor market hierarchy, “My job was to put up chain link fence along temporary construction sites. The pay was awful, and we were treated terribly” (2016). The experience confirmed for Dr. Pastor that while he did not want to do this type of work, he also wanted to ensure that those doing such work would be treated decently.
After completing his doctorate degree, Dr. Pastor became an Assistant Professor at Occidental College. It allowed Dr. Pastor to really explore his interests. He explains, “I was in a very supportive environment, particularly concerning tenure. A lot of professors get oriented around tenure rather than what they are interested in. I was able to explore more of what my interests were.” Dr. Pastor found his interest in issues of social inequality and environmental justice. He could use his work to inform activism around these issues.
Finding his interest in environmental justice happened a bit by accident, though. Dr. Pastor was working with a colleague, Jim Sadd, who had two students who wanted to work on environmental justice issues. Dr. Pastor recalls, “We told them that was fine as long as they worked on our stuff, too.” However, the students started talking with a reporter at the Los Angeles Times, and shortly thereafter, the front page of the local section had a headline reading, ‘Occidental College study alleges environmental racism in LA’ ” (2016). Soon after, the city council passed a resolution creating an environmental justice task force. The task force wanted to meet with the authors of the Occidental study. Dr. Pastor describes, “We kind of held off the city of Los Angeles while we figured out what the students had done.” The work also attracted the attention of environmental justice community-based organizations, and before they knew it, a new set of relationships had developed, and they became environmental justice researchers.
The late 1980s were a transformation time for Dr. Pastor. In 1988, he applied for a fellowship from the Kellogg Foundation to allow him the time to work on a project regarding minimum wage standards. Upon receiving the fellowship, he could spend one-quarter of his time on his project of interest for three years. For Dr. Pastor, this meant becoming involved in community organizing. This experience reshaped his vision of a progressive faculty member. He says one version of being a progressive faculty member means being on faculty and being progressive. Another version involves being really engaged with community-based organizations. He also notes that both Occidental College, where he was on faculty from 1984 until 1996, and the University of California, Santa Cruz, where he was on faculty from 1996 until 2007, were open to this type of work as they maintain a very progressive tradition. However, he firmly believes, “If you do the stuff you think is really meaningful, you do your best work” (2016).
Dr. Pastor is a Sociology and American Studies & Ethnicity professor at the University of Southern California. He is the director of the Program for Environmental and Regional Equity (PERE) and co-director of the Center for the Study of Immigrant Integration (CSII) at the University of Southern California. He researches economic, environmental, and social issues in low-income urban communities. Dr. Pastor also examines the related social movements seeking to change those realities. His most recent book, Just Growth: Inclusion and Prosperity in America’s Metropolitan Regions, co-authored with Chris Benner, argues that growth and equity should be linked, offering a new path for a U.S. economy seeking to recover from an economic crisis and distributional distress. He is also a nationally renowned speaker, media commenter, and writer on environmental justice, demographic change, inequality, and immigrant integration.
Working in the environmental field allows Dr. Pastor to impact the health and lives of real people. Dr. Pastor has stayed in the environmental field for the opportunity to make a difference in people’s lives. He cites his work on environmental disparities in Southern California that Communities for a Better Environment was able to use to reverse an emissions ruling. Dr. Pastor says, “It was the kind of rule that never gets reversed.” Another highlight was his recent work with 35 different environmental justice organizations in the Bay Area. “We put an editorial in the San Francisco Chronicle and, two days later, presented the paper at the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) meeting. We presented the report in Richmond with community-based organizations. It felt like a real highlight in terms of integration of academy and community,” he says (2016).
Dr. Pastor also continues to work in the environmental field because of the endless opportunities to do exciting work. He explains, “Within this field, there are a lot of fascinating intellectual issues that are endlessly interesting from a nerd point of view, such as Geographic Information Systems (GIS) and figuring out demographics and where pollution is going…We can explore our moral and social commitments while being like kids with toys. We are fascinated with statistical issues.” While intellectually and academically interesting, Dr. Pastor’s fascination and skill with statistical measures have also earned him tremendous credibility as an environmental justice researcher.
The credibility he has earned as an environmental justice researcher is one of Dr. Pastor’s most significant achievements, “The State of California takes environmental justice seriously. They do not always do what communities want, but the research is not disputed” (2016).
Dr. Pastor acknowledges the role of mentors in the development of his career. Specifically, he credits Dr. Sam Bowles, a graduate school advisor, as a good advisor. Dr. Pastor says, “[Bowles] was a very good mentor. He was very smart and, full of good ideas, and very human. He told me, ‘The trick is to get a good job in a place where you really want to live.’ He also reminded me that it was just important to build relationships” (2016). He showed Dr. Pastor that there is a role for people who are firm about their beliefs but that it is important to express your beliefs in a way that reaches out and keeps people on board. Dr. Pastor also credits his dad as being an important mentor. He explains, “My dad had a sixth-grade education. He was a person who was very handy and fixed a lot of things…When I was 16, he bought me a car that did not work and told me he would buy all of the parts I needed” (2016). Experiences such as this taught Dr. Pastore that nothing is so complicated that one cannot figure it out.
While Dr. Bowles and his dad were important mentors, Dr. Pastor notes that there were few Latino professors as he progressed through his academic career. As such, people his age who came through the academic pathway did not get a lot of mentoring and, in turn, are not the greatest at being mentors, and he sees much room for improvement.
Dr. Pastor has made sure to be a mentor to others. He began working with Rachel Morello-Frosch, an associate professor at the University of California, Berkeley when she was a post-doctoral researcher. A very talented scholar, she is now in a situation where she is thriving. Dr. Pastor also worked with Chris Benner, a tenured faculty member at the University of California, Davis. Dr. Pastor assisted Dr. Benner with securing his first large grant; they have since written two books together. Dr. Pastor has also served as many students’ academic advisor, dissertation advisor, and co-author.
Dr. Pastor advises those considering a career in the environmental field, “Do what you love, and you will be good at it. Do not go into the field because you think it is the thing to do. Go into it because it moves you.” For minorities considering a career in the environmental field, he adds, “Be prepared. You might be one of the first people through. The extent to which the issues of environmental justice are not recognized can be irritating. We think the environment affects everyone, but it does not really impact people equally, and not everyone knows that” (2016).
Interview conducted by Multicultural Environmental Leadership Development Initiative staff. 2016. University of Michigan – School of Natural Resources and Environment. Ann Arbor, MI.
USC Dornsife. n.d. Manuel Pastor. Retrieved June 22, 2023 from https://dornsife.usc.edu/profile/manuel-pastor/.