Ph.D., The Graduate Center, CUNY (2016, Political Science)
J.D., University of Puerto Rico (2009, Law)
B.A., Columbia University (2001, Anthropology)
José A. Laguarta Ramírez is Adjunct Assistant Professor in the Anthropology Department at John Jay and currently also teaches Latin American and Latino Studies at City College. Born in San Juan, Puerto Rico and trained in Anthropology, Law, and Political Science, his teaching and research experience spans across a number of disciplines in diverse academic and professional settings. Dr. Laguarta Ramírez's publications and ongoing projects focus on social movement learning, the political and moral economies of corruption, and the history, culture, and politics of Puerto Rico. Other major areas of scholarly interest include critical theories, urban studies, colonialism/coloniality, and transnational political economy/ecology, with the United States and Latin America and the Caribbean as areas of regional expertise.
Current courses
ANT 330 American Cultural Pluralism and the Law
ANT 208 Urban Anthropology
Previous courses
ANT 101 Introduction to Cultural Anthropology
ANT 100 Ethnography of Youth and Justice in New York City
2021. In Puerto Rico, the 2019 Uprising Produces an Electoral Opening to the Left. New Politics, 70: 74-80.
2019. ‘A more colorful picture of my own vision’: expansive learning in Puerto Rico’s student anti-austerity movement. Social Movement Studies, 19(3):325-341.
2018. Concrete and Countryside: The Urban and the Rural in 1950s Puerto Rican Culture. By Carmelo Esterrich (Review). Journal of Social History, 53(2):575-577.
2018. Riding the perennial gale: working-class Puerto Ricans and the involution of colonial capitalism. Dialectical Anthropology, 42(2): 117-129.
2016. Enforcement of Puerto Rico’s colonial debt pushes out young workers: ‘compromise’ protects vulture funds, not Puerto Rico. Dollars & Sense: Real World Economics, July/August.