Jozef Callan Robles

Incoming UC President’s Postdoctoral Fellow, UC San Diego

PhD Candidate in Sociology, UC Irvine

I study and write about how legal status and racialization shape everyday life. In my dissertation, The Remnant Logics of Immigrant Illegality, I argue that legalization doesn’t remove the dynamics of illegality; it reshapes and reproduces many of its core logics.

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SELECTED HIGHLIGHTS

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Recent Grants & Fellowship

  • American Sociological Association Minority Fellowship

  • Russell Sage Dissertation Grant

Public Writing

Award-Winning Research

  • “Remnants of Illegality” Winner, 2025 ASA Latino/a Sociology Student Paper Award

Teaching Experience

  • 3.8/4 average student evaluation score across 11 courses

  • Nominated for “Outstanding Lecturer” Award.

FEATURED PROJECT

In this co-led collaborative project with Rocio Rosales (Associate Professor of Sociology), we examine the lived experiences of immigrants held in detention facilities across the United States. Through ongoing letter-writing, we have corresponded with over 65 detained immigrants across six US facilities, documenting their experiences of confinement. While the U.S. government characterizes these sites as administrative holding centers, our findings suggest a far more punitive and opaque system—one that detains, fast-tracks deportations, and routinely violates due process. Our first co-authored paper is currently in progress and will be submitted for publication by the end of 2025. We also plan to publish additional papers from this study, including solo-authored work.